


Of the Spirit

by shini_amaryllis



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Female Airbender, Forbidden Love, Romance, Secret-Keeping, Slow Build, Spirit World, Spirit-world walking, Spiritual, Traveling, betrothal, divergence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-03-08 00:44:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 41,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3189419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shini_amaryllis/pseuds/shini_amaryllis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Serenity's spiritual connection was far greater than her parents anticipated. Being the only airbender in the Fire Nation was hard enough without waking up in the Spirit World almost every night. But she would overcome every obstacle that was thrown at her and one day, she told herself, one day she would be become a great airbending master, worthy enough to have those tattoos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Serenity

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this idea I had a long time ago. It was originally supposed to be a HakodaxOC, but I was bit with this inspiration, so it's been changed to ZukoxOC, because I think Zuko needs someone a bit brighter in his life than Mai. The idea was that Aang is not the last airbender, that there was one more that was descended from an airbender. I hadn't worked out the kinks at the time, but I might have now…so…enjoy…

When Serenity was nine, her mother took her away from the Fire Nation on a brief trip. She did not speak about what they were doing, so Serenity maintained her silence. They traveled for days upon days before they reached their destination.

"Mother, where are we going?" Serenity said at long last, unable to restrain the question. Her feet ached from the walk and her cheeks were pink from the elevation. They had been climbing a mountain steadily for the past few hours, and it was beginning to wear on the child.

"To the Eastern Air Temple."

Her mother pointed upwards through the clouds, where a temple was barely hidden. At least, that was how it was to her eyes, but she doubted many others could see it as clearly as she could.

Awe colored her face as she tilted her head back, despite the glare of the sunlight that hit her grey eyes, turning them silver. And then her face shifted to an expression of confusion as she turned back to her mother.

"But you told me not to use that," Serenity said in a sullen voice. Not being able to use her special skill at home was something that practically drained her. Being thought of as a non-bender wasn't so bad, Serenity didn't have the temperament for firebending anyways.

Her mother smiled, tugging lightly on the end of her daughter's intricate braid. "I told you not to in the Fire Nation for good reason," she warned the child, "if Fire Lord Azulon knew you could airbend, my love, he would have you killed and not even your betrothal contract with Lu Ten would save you."

Serenity's lower lip wobbled slightly. Her mother only told her the whole truth when she had no other choice, like when she and her father had first discovered that their daughter was an airbender. "O-Oh."

Her mother knelt so that they were more level with each other, squeezing Serenity's shoulders reassuringly. "I know it's hard," she said, "being the only airbender in the world, but that's why I brought you here. There is someone waiting for you."

"But all the Air Nomads are dead," Serenity said in confusion, "that's why I can't learn airbending."

"This man cannot teach you airbending," her mother corrected her, "but he can teach something that is equally important."

Realization sparked in her eyes. For years Serenity had had a number of strange dreams, ones that even her parents could not explain. She always ended up in an eerie place with strange spirits that had guided her for years with great advice. There weren't many that had liked her to begin with, as she was a human, but she had proven herself to be a loving and caring child despite her humanity. It was easier to be herself with the spirits than it was in the Fire Nation.

"Who is he?"

"His name is Guru Pathik," her mother said simply, removing something that looked akin to a walking stick or a staff from her back and holding it out to her daughter. "I can go no further, but you can, with this."

Serenity took it, a bit bemused as to how a stick could take her up to the mountains, high up where they were shrouded by clouds. "What is it?" she asked.

"A staff," her mother said, her eyes dancing with amusement, "but you will find it has another use."

Serenity violently jumped when the sides parted slightly to reveal that the staff could double as a glider.

"Wow…" she traced a few fingers over the sturdy orange cloth that made the glider.

"Your great-grandfather used something similar to this to weave through the air currents," her mother explained.

"Grandfather Gyatso did?" Serenity asked, stunned, looking up from her examination in surprise. "But he was so old!"

Her mother laughed and Serenity memorized the sound. Her mother hardly laughed these days, she coughed and stayed in bed more than anything. Father said not to worry about it, but Serenity did. Mother wasn't getting any better and no one knew why.

"Gyatso was young once," she assured her child whose cheeks pinked in her embarrassment, "as young as you are now."

"Really?" Serenity had seen a carving of Master Gyatso and he looked as though he hadn't been young for several centuries (or decades, Serenity wasn't really good at telling age at just nine).

"Yes, really," her mother said, attempting to hide a hacking cough behind her hand. "Now, go on, Guru Pathik is probably waiting for you."

"B-B-But," Serenity stuttered, fumbling over her words and eyeing the cliff with apprehension, "what if I fall?"

"Oh, my beautiful girl," her mother smiled, "you have always trusted in the wind, do not waver now."

Serenity's eyes went up the mountain once more.  _"Do not waver, Serenity,"_  a voice in the air seemed to whisper.  _"The wind is it your blood…let it teach you."_  Serenity closed her eyes, breathing in and out before taking a leap of faith. She took a running start, locking her fingers into the front of the glider, using the wood as handles as she launched herself off the ground using a bit of her airbending to give her a boost.

The air curled around her, buffeting her and keeping her up, it was a comforting presence, like heat in the winter, a presence that had always been within her but no longer needed to be. Delight brightened her eyes and her grin widened until it was almost blinding.

This was freedom like nothing she had ever experienced. If this was what it was like to be an Air Nomad, then she could see why their race had once been so great. But the Air Nomads were also tempered by the ancient principles that governed their culture, the ones that kept everything in balance, principles that Serenity had little knowledge of.

But she was always up for learning something new.

* * *

Serenity wasn't sure what exactly she had been expecting when she met Guru Pathik. Firstly because she had never seen anyone with his coloring before (the Fire Nation was well known for dark hair, pale skin, and golden eyes, none of which Serenity shared) and secondly because…he was weird, but wise.

It was he that discovered that Serenity's dreams were more than just dreams. She'd fall asleep and sometimes awaken in the Spirit World.

"I admit I have never heard of an occurrence as strange as yours," Pathik admitted, stroking his frizzy white beard with a thoughtful expression encompassing his face. "Even your great-grandfather with all his spiritual presence succeeded only entering the Spirit World three times in his lifetime."

Serenity looked up in surprise. "You knew my great-grandfather?" Just how old was this guy? He had to be more than a century old, but she had never heard of a human living for so long.

"Monk Gyatso and I were great friends," Pathik informed her, his smile twitching his beard. "You have his eyes, you know, and his temperament."

Serenity blushed, but her beaming grin betrayed her pleasure at his words. "Really?"

"Gyatso was a very calm individual…very free spirited," Pathik's eyes drifted out of focus as he recalled his old friend. He glanced back to the child. She was young and filled with vitality, treasuring all life in spite of growing up in the Fire Nation where firebenders lived, destroying many lives in the process. "Without meaning to, you have emulated his spirit."

"But without learning from a proper airbending master, I'll never master my abilities," Serenity said in a sullen voice, her face falling as much as it had risen moments ago. She only knew a few of the Air Nomads' practices through oral recitation from what her mother had heard from her father before her. She knew startlingly little about her culture other than what she had learned from her tutors on how the Fire Nation on how they had wiped out a nation (something that had always upset her greatly, but she was very good at hiding how much it bothered her in front of her tutors). Her mother told her as much as she remembered about the stories her father had once told her about Monk Gyatso.

It was rare for airbenders to have children, but not unheard of, for if it was, the Air Nomads would have become extinct long before they had. Gyatso had happened upon Serenity's great-grandmother on one of his many travels over the world. She was a spirited woman from one of the Earth Kingdom's outlying villages who was gentle and kind, but Gyatso could not remain with her. He was a Nomad and he had a duty to his people, so he returned to the Air Temple, not knowing until years had passed and his son had come to the temple that she had been pregnant. It was sheer luck that his son, Peizhi, survived the massacre, hiding his abilities and making a life for himself.

"You will have many masters who will teach you the ways of the airbenders as well as teachings you might find useful in the future," Pathik said, closing his eyes and breathing in and out slowly, missing the incredulous expression that adorned Serenity's face.

"All the airbenders are dead," Serenity said with a scowl, "my grandfather, Peizhi, was the last airbender in the world before me."

"In the physical world, yes, I suppose you are the last airbender," Pathik conceded. "However, you are of the spirit."

"Of the spirit? What's that supposed to mean?" Serenity asked, her eyebrows melding together, conveying her confusion.

"If you wish to learn the ways of the Air Nomads, you will have to learn it from the Air Nomads themselves," Pathik said simply, "I advise you to enter into the Spirit World and seek them out."

"There are airbenders in the Spirit World?" Serenity asked, her eyes brightening. Her excitement was so much that she had accidentally manipulated the air currents around her so she hovered slightly in the air before returning to the ground with her legs still crossed.

"Perhaps one or two," Pathik said with a shrug and a wink. "But that is for you to discover."

Serenity couldn't restrain a few laughs at the guru's jaunty tone. But then she calmed, closing her eyes and pressing her fists together. She breathed in and out, focusing her energies inward and deeper, and then she opened her eyes.

"Aw, _man!"_

She was in the Swamp of Jiong-Li, a place that was nearly impossible to navigate. It had taken her three nights to get out of it once.

"This is just what I need," she grumbled. "There's no way I'm going to find an airbender in here." It was impossible to find specific spirits, but finding an airbender? Forget it. Serenity gave a forlorn sigh, reluctantly standing in the swamp that had already drenched her lower body. She jumped, the air around her pulling her forward as she twirled in the air to land on a sturdy fallen log.

"An impressive display of skill for one who so rarely uses it," an aged voice commented, causing her to twist so violently that she fell back into the swamp with a startled yell. She stared up at the speaker. He was as old as his voice had suggested, maybe even older, garbed in yellow and orange robes with prayer beads hanging from his neck. His head was bald but he had a thick white mustache that fell past his chin. The blue arrow tattoo on his forehead told Serenity all she needed to know.

"You're an airbending master!" she said in awe, causing the older man's eyes to twinkle. Wait…his eyes…they were grey… "You're not…Monk Gyatso…are you?"

The man who was her great-grandfather bowed politely. "It is a privilege to meet one who will help with the rebirth of my nation…and it is a pleasure to meet my great-granddaughter."

"Hello," Serenity said, her face flooding with heat as she looked down at her soaking self. "I'm Serenity."

"A name befitting of an Air Nomad," Gyatso assured her, making Serenity smile.

"Are you going to teach me airbending, then?" she asked, sitting up in the water, the grin spreading so widely across her face that it was difficult to see where it began and ended.

"How can I deny one who already has a heightened spiritual presence," Gyatso said with a chuckle. "The teachings of the Air Nomads, I will give you, if you do something for me."

Serenity now eyed him suspiciously. "What kind of something?"

"A simple message," Gyatso said kindly, "to someone you may come across in your time on this earth."

Serenity stood, ignoring the water that clung to her skin and weighted down her clothes slightly, bowing in the manner that she had been taught as a member of the Fire Nation. "It would be an honor, Monk Gyatso, to pass on this message in your stead."

And it was then that Serenity's true trial began.

* * *

"You've really been sick?"

Serenity lifted her tired eyes from the book in her hands to smile slightly at the eight year old boy that had entered her room. "Did you doubt me, Zuko?" she asked, her lips curling into a smile as she put down her book and the prince jumped up onto her bed, dangling his feet over the side.

"O-Of course not!" Zuko said quickly, the lie leaving his lips effortlessly as he took in his friend. Her soft brown hair formed a halo of sorts on the pillow behind her and her pale eyes were half shut, shadows tracing lightly under them as though she had been without rest for some time. Zuko frowned slightly.

"Liar," Serenity was quick to call his bluff. "No trust."

"I trust you!" Zuko said hotly, something that was hardly surprising given he was a firebender.

Her smile widened as she shut her eyes. "Good. How is training?"

She opened her eyes once more, rubbing the sleep from them in time to see the petulant expression on his face. "I'm not as good as Father had hoped," he said miserably, flumping backwards onto the bed, his arms sprawled on the mattress.

"You just need practice," Serenity disagreed, giving a vague smile in return. "Everyone needs practice."

"Lu Ten doesn't need practice," Zuko said sullenly. His cousin always seemed to have perfect form (perfect everything, really).

"Lu Ten wasn't magically as good as he is," Serenity said patiently, sitting up slightly in her bed, almost knocking over her staff where it rested beside her bed. Zuko, thankfully, had no idea what it was. For all he knew, it was a carved walking stick that she had picked up on her trip with her mother the past weekend. "Maybe one day you'll be as good as he is."

"Maybe?" That didn't seem too definite to Zuko and he deflated slightly.

Serenity could not restrain a short, albeit tired, laugh at his tone. "Are you worried?"

"No," he lied a second time, but Serenity was not fooled. She canted her head slightly on the pillow, scrutinizing him as a loose lock of hair fell against her neck. Zuko's cheeks reddened at the stare.

"You know, for a prince you're a terrible liar," she mentioned, cupping her chin in one hand with a look of contemplation despite how heavy her arm felt.

"What? No, I'm  _not!"_  Zuko fired back, his face turning hotter at the insinuation.

"Only slightly better than Lu Ten," Serenity had to concede, making a less than an inch space between her thumb and first finger. "Slightly."

"You're a horrible human being," Zuko told her shortly, but she could tell he didn't mean it. She could always tell when he meant it, when the fiery temper was fueled with true anger, but that was not now.

Serenity shrugged, unconcerned by his words, smiling as he groaned, sitting up once more. "Sometimes you really irritate me."

"I irritate many people," Serenity agreed, unconcerned by that as well. "But fire still needs air to burn."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zuko asked in confusion, but Serenity didn't have time to answer before her door was opened and Princess Ursa, Zuko's mother, entered.

"Zuko," she called gently to her son, "it's time to go."

"But we just got here!" Zuko complained, his heels connecting with the side of the bed as he scowled at his mother. He didn't get to see Serenity as often as he had used to, she was a year older and betrothed to marry Lu Ten, so she saw his cousin more than he saw her, which was disappointing because Serenity was always fun to hang out with even if she was almost always reading or meditating.

"Serenity is recovering from an illness," Ursa said smoothly, taking her son's hands and pulling him off the bed with a small smile. "See? She's already falling asleep again."

Serenity was indeed, her eyes nearly closed, just grey slits under her eyelids.

"Bye, Serenity!"

The nine year old airbender waved her fingers slightly before finally giving into sleep even before she heard the click of the door sliding shut behind them. She had no way of knowing that her parents took shifts through the night as they had for the past two days, worry lining their faces. Serenity was going through a change, she was becoming far less of Fire Nation and far more of Air Nomad. They had always known one day that this would happen, that she would finally learn the skills that her great-grandfather had once been so skilled in, but at the same time, it frightened them much more than anything else.

They didn't want to imagine what Fire Lord Azulon would do if he discovered his grandson was marrying the last airbender that still walked the earth.

* * *

An airbender must be light on their feet, able to switch directions at a moment's notice…they must move with the flow of the wind and not with force…which was basically the opposite of being a firebender.

Serenity sighed, but she took up her stance once more. She was far in the depths of her family's compound which was more out of the Fire Nation Capital than nobles typically lived, and they didn't have as many servants, so she didn't have to worry about anyone overlooking her and catching her using airbending. Her palms were open, flat to the air around her which brushed against her comfortingly.

"Follow the flow of the air," she murmured, moving with practiced grace from her tutors' teachings but also with the fluidity of the airbenders. It was a bit like dancing, Serenity had soon discovered, and Serenity loved to dance. So, it was hardly surprising that she loved to airbend as well. She swayed with the wind, smiling as it picked up, swirling around her.

She had only learned three tiers of airbending and thirty-six were required to be considered a true master and given her tattoos. That was what worried Serenity the most. People would know who she was once she had her tattoos, but that was years away. However, it didn't stop her from being frightened of her impending doom.

"There might come a time when you deem it necessary to leave this land behind, Ren," her father had told her once when she was young.

"But I don't want to leave!" Serenity had cried, fat tears rolling down her cheeks as she had hugged her father's arm. "I love the Fire Nation! And I love my friends!"

However, she soon discovered how her mind could change once she learned of her lineage. Her mother and father had seen how much it pained her to listen to her tutors drone on how the Fire Nation triumphed over the Air Nomads, how she listened with her head bowed, biting her lip to remain silent as they spoke of the massacre of a race as something to commend Fire Lord Sozin for.

It made her sick. She had become quite withdrawn in the weeks leading up to her ninth birthday, which is what led her mother, as sick as she was, to take her to one of the Air Temples. Serenity may have been young, but she was quite behind in her studies to become an airbender, as the Air Nomads started learning their first tier when they were much younger.

Serenity sighed, the funnel of air around her ceasing, dropping her lightly to the ground once more. Being an airbender in the Fire Nation was harder than she thought.

"You're starting to get really introverted."

Serenity jumped violently, almost shooting into the air but she quickly forced her feet to remain on the ground. She twisted around to find Lu Ten standing behind her, a dark eyebrow arched in amusement at the flush of her cheeks.

Her heart was beating unnaturally fast; had he seen—?

"H-How long have you been standing there?" she stammered.

"Only about a second or two," Lu Ten assured her, frowning slightly at his betrothed. "Why?"

Serenity breathed a silent sigh of relief before smiling up at the fifteen year old. "No reason…I just don't like people sneaking up on me…I was dancing," she invented wildly, waving her hands around with emphasis, making him laugh slightly and her cheeks darken further.

"You and your dancing, Serenity," he said, shaking his head before holding out his hand to her. "The festival is in an hour…I'm escorting you, remember?"

"Oh…" Serenity had forgotten. She didn't much like the Fire Lily Festival, despite liking the flowers very much. The wind carried voices and she could hear the cruel comments of other nobleman's daughters regarding her betrothal to Lu Ten. "Lu Ten…can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Lu Ten said, his smile as light as his father, Prince Iroh's. His hand held hers, bringing warmth to her skin.

"Do you like me?" Serenity asked in a blunt manner, her eyes imploring him. "I know I'm…" she cringed, "a child, and my marrying age is so far away…"

"Why are you worried about that?" Lu Ten asked her, surprised by her words as he knelt down on one knee, taking both her hands in his. They were much smaller than his, and much smoother, not calloused by years of firebending training. Everything about Serenity was soft and delicate. As a non-bender she could hardly be deemed as dangerous, but there was a fire inside her that burned, something he would see quite clearly.

"The other nobleman's daughters," Serenity said, averting her eyes, "they don't really like me."

"Then they're just jealous," Lu Ten scoffed, "because one day I will marry you and not them and they will be jealous of my beautiful bride."

Her cheeks darkened further, but then she frowned, opening her mouth to say he hadn't really answered her question when he did something she did not expect.

He bent forward to kiss one of her blushing cheeks.

"Of course I like you," he told her with a smile and her own lips curled upwards as well.


	2. Loss and Leaving

It became rather clear early on that Serenity did not like the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, or at least, it was obvious that she was not suited for it. Her parents pulled her out no more than a few weeks after she had started, something she was incredibly grateful for.

She was twelve when Azula realized this and began to add it to the list of things that made the airbender inferior to her.

"You're not at the Academy because you're too dumb," Azula told her shortly one day when she was sitting with Zuko, her book forgotten as she peeled an orange, listening patiently to what her friend was saying. "Everyone knows that's why you left."

Serenity looked up at her, holding her in an eerie unblinking stare that unnerved the girl as her brother glared at her.

"Shut up, Azula!" Zuko hissed, his golden eyes flashing dangerously, or as dangerously as an eleven year old could pull off.

"What? It's the truth," Azula said simply, her eyebrow twitching slightly at how Serenity did not react to her words. "Come on! Get angry! Do something! You're so irritating!"

"Many people think so," Serenity said, unconcerned in the face of her fire. She turned away from the girl, focusing her task instead on the orange once more, handing a slice to Zuko who was gazing at her in surprise. "What?"

"How can you listen to her insult you like that and not even blink?" Zuko asked, taking a moment to place the orange slice in his mouth. "I would've snapped!"

Serenity shrugged, a smile warming her lips. "That is because you are a being of fire," she said stoutly, "I am of the air."

Zuko immediately thought of firebending, thus becoming confused. Serenity couldn't airbend…so what did she mean? She stood for emphasis to perform an elaborate twirl he had once seen her do in a dance with Lu Ten the previous year, before he'd shipped out to the war.

"Dancers are always so light-footed," she said brightly, smiling at him in a way that made a small flush spill into his cheeks, though a voice in the back of his mind wondered if she smiled like that to Lu Ten. "We move with as much grace as the airbenders of the Air Temples once did."

"What makes you think the airbenders were graceful?" Zuko asked, his eyebrows furrowing together in confusion as her bright smile fades to a more melancholic one. He swore he caught a flash of anger in her eyes, but it was gone too fast to be.

"Oh, please, Zuko!" She flicked her hand at him (accidentally slicing a flower off at the head two meters away with a gust of sharp wind, but thankfully it was missed by him as he was the only one present). "They were  _air_ benders! They moved  _with the air!_  Why wouldn't they be graceful?"

She sounded slightly insulted, and then the grin was back and she held out a hand to him. "Dance with me!"

A furious redness bloomed on his flesh and he recoiled. "What?"

"Dance. With. Me." Serenity was beaming down at him and Zuko realized she hadn't smiled much since Lu Ten had shipped out to join the war efforts. Then she had the audacity to pout her lips and make her eyes as big as possible. " _Please_ , Zuko!"

Zuko made a grunt of disgust _. "Fine!"_

He took her hand, allowing her to pull him up, placing one hand gingerly on her waist, the other remaining in her hand as she hummed a soft tune, moving with precision, her body swaying in the wind. She probably would have gone on to become a professional dancer if her parents let her…but that wouldn't have been becoming of a nobleman's daughter. She could be deadly with a weapon, though, but Zuko had never seen her hold anything that cause another human harm.

"You are a terrible dancer," she laughed, "but I'm good, so you're in luck."

"Who cares if you're a good dancer, anyways?" Zuko sulked.

"I don't know," Serenity said lightly, extracting herself with a delicate swirl, "it might help with your firebending."

"You're a liar."

"Maybe," she said airily, checking the position of the sun, squinting at it with silver eyes. "I've got to go, but I'll be back later."

Zuko stared at her blankly and she scowled at him. "Don't tell me you forgot!"

"O-Of course not!"

He had.

Serenity gave a despairing sigh towards her old friend. "The fireworks tonight…we were going to watch them from the roof, remember?"

Realization bloomed in his eyes. "Oh, right, I knew that."

"Mm-hm," Serenity said in a dry manner as she walked away. It was only a few hours more before she returned and they were settled on the top of the compound (or at least the top of a part that was a bit closer to the ground), watching at the fireworks illuminated the sky. Zuko watched with bored eyes, but Serenity's were so wide that they reflected the explosions in the sky, her mouth open in excitement. Lu Ten was the one she was supposed to be watching the skies with, but his cousin had been unable to do so, so he had asked Zuko if he would go in his place.

It felt like a dare to Zuko, because Zuko was in the Fire Nation with Lu Ten's betrothed while he was far at sea. It was like he was daring his cousin to steal Serenity away, which was ridiculous really, because they were just friends….weren't they? Even if Serenity meditated constantly and forced him to dance even if he didn't want to…

"Hey…does that guy work for your family?"

Her words drew him out of his thoughts and in the direction she was pointing, her eyebrows pulled together in confusion. There was a man scaling the pagoda. Zuko's eyes narrowed.

"No," he said, standing smoothly, "he does not." And then he was moving faster than Serenity had ever seen, the fire igniting in his hands and being thrown into the air towards the man garbed in black, but he blocked it with a strike of his own flame.

Serenity debated a split second. Conflict wasn't really the way of the Air Nomads, but, at the same time, she couldn't just leave Zuko on his own. It was only after she had begun to run that she realized there really was no debate of the matter.

The muscles in her leg pulsed with heat as she raced after the prince, planting one foot on his back and sailing over him, catching a tier of the pagoda and pulling herself further up despite the aghast voice of Zuko. Serenity ducked easily under the intruder's shots of flame, jumping on his back and locking her arm around his neck like her father had taught her.

She didn't even see the ball of fire thrown towards them, but she did feel it burn through her flesh with a kind of pain she had never experienced before in her life. Darkness encompassed her and she fell into a weightlessness.

* * *

It was Princess Ursa she saw first when she awoke, her arm throbbing with pain. Serenity couldn't resist gasping, attempting to sit up even if damaged her arm further.

"Please, don't, Serenity," Ursa warned, pushing her gently back to the recovery bed. "Your arm—"

Serenity's eyes fell to the thick bandage that swathed her arm. Underneath she knew the skin would be marred and red from the fire. "Who fired the shot?" she wondered and Ursa flinched. A glow softened Serenity's eyes. "…I see…"

So it had been Zuko, then. That explained why his mother was here and he wasn't.

"Who was the man?" she asked instead.

"A mercenary tasked with the assassination of Fire Lord Azulon," Ursa informed her, "the Fire Lord was most grateful for your efforts to subdue him."

Serenity didn't say anything to that, merely falling further into her cushions, giving a low exhale. She looked around the room she was in, only to realize that it was her own. There was too much red, she had thought countless times, why did everyone have to wear red all the time? Her staff still rested against the wall, a painting of sakura blossoms that her mother had once done was across from the bed, like always, and she could feel a dagger under her pillow, the one her father had insisted that she sleep with at all times. She felt so distant from her room now. She had once spent countless hours within it, doing her own self-study, but now it seemed like she had to get away from the house. Serenity could fool herself into believing that her mother was getting better each day if she didn't see her as much.

"Serenity…" The way Ursa said her name with a gentle caress, with an underlying sadness, Serenity knew. Her heart throbbed in her chest and the sobs choked in her throat. The war had forced her father and her betrothed into battle and she had hoped the spirits would spare her mother, but…

"I'm so sorry," Ursa said quietly, her eyes downcast (her mother had been a close confidant of the Fire Princess, Serenity recalled), "your mother…she passed in the night."

The tears that had been barely pricking her eyes now overflowed, trailing in rivulets down her cheeks, but she made no noise, her sobs silenced as she turned on her side, away from Ursa and on her still healing arm. It burned with a brief agony, but Serenity would rather have the pain of injury than the pain of heart.

She did not move for a very long time, even after the Fire Princess had gone and Serenity was left to the depths of her own mind. She cried for hours in Xai Bau's Grove in the Spirit World. The true grief she felt in the wake of her mother's demise burning through her like Zuko's flame.

But she remembered her great-grandfather's teachings, as well as Guru Pathik's. The love she had towards her mother was not gone, it was simply reborn into another. She had told her mother that teaching once and she had laughed as her daughter's cheeks had reddened.

"Thinking of someone in particular?" she had asked, tugging on Serenity's intricate braid. Serenity had smacked away her hand.

The unsettling of the air was what woke her up. She was reaching for the dagger under her pillow blindly with her good arm as someone forced their way through the shutters that covered her balcony at night.

Gold eyes met grey. It was difficult to say who was more surprised. Serenity was more surprised that he had actually snuck in through her balcony with an orange in hand. Zuko was more surprised that she was awake.

For a moment it seemed to be a test of wills as neither child moved.

"Prince Ozai will not be pleased," Serenity finally said, her voice aching and rasping from her crying.

Zuko flinched and Serenity regretted the low blow. Zuko was not as excelled in his firebending as Azula was, something his father was quick to notice. His father had once claimed that Azula had been born lucky but that Zuko had been lucky to be born. Serenity knew it would have broken her heart to learn that her father thought so little of her.

"I'm," Zuko swallowed thickly, looking more apologetic and humbled than Serenity had ever seen him appear, "I'm sorry about your arm…and your mom."

Serenity sighed tiredly, looking down at the bandage. "I'll be fine," she croaked. The  _eventually_  went unsaid.

Zuko moved forward cautiously. She hadn't snapped at him, so that was good, but he'd never actually seen her angry, so that wasn't saying much.

"Is that orange going to peel itself, or what?"

Zuko jumped and she smiled. And remarkably soon after she was offered a few slices of a badly peeled orange that would have made her laugh if it wouldn't hurt her so much.

* * *

Zuko was soaking wet.

Serenity didn't know whether to laugh or be concerned as he flopped down on the chair opposite her. The sulky expression on his face told who had caused him to be in such a state.

"So…what did Azula do this time?" Serenity inquired lightly, sipping her tea.

"I don't want to talk about it," Zuko grumbled, shaking out his sleeves at his sides. "Girls are crazy!"

"How kind of you to say."

Zuko blinked and fumbled, staring at Serenity. Of course, he knew that she was a girl, it would be difficult to disprove that, even without the soft contours of her face and the delicate framework of her body.

"I-I mean—"

"I know what you meant." Serenity's lips curled in amusement as Zuko tried to defend himself. "It's fine."

That was the closest thing to a smile Zuko had seen in months, ever since the death of her mother it was like she didn't have the ability to do so anymore. His mother assured him that it was just Serenity's way of coping with the loss.

"Must've been quite the sight," Serenity mused, giving him a look.

"Well, it wasn't," Zuko said hotly, clenching his fists, his embarrassment making them steam slightly.

Serenity did not speak after that, opting to sip her tea instead and ignore him in favor of her book. "Snapping at everyone will get you nowhere in life," she told him after a long silence. "What good will it do if all you make are enemies?"

Another annoying habit she had picked up was asking very philosophical questions.

He glared at her and she snapped her book shut with a sigh.

"You know, Zuko," she told him, "there is a reason why people fear the Fire Nation so much, it makes one wonder why."

Her eyes were silver and daring. It was like she was asking him to prove that he would not be one of the reasons for that fear, that he was one who could lead a great change in the world.

But Zuko shifted his eyes from her, missing the expression of disappointment that colored Serenity's face. She had always been slightly distant towards the Fire Nation in the wake of the realization of what they had done to her race, but it was becoming much more obvious now. She may have liked Zuko and his mother and Lu Ten and Iroh, but the Fire Lord and Prince Ozai were a completely different matter. Their need to conquer humanity made her sick to her stomach.

It was something she never wanted to see Zuko end up like, but she might have been too late to change his mind in that aspect.

The Fire Nation and their way of brainwashing people…Serenity could only sigh and pray he would end up more kind and peaceful, like his mother was. She watched as he left, collected by his mother moments later with a missive from his uncle. He waved her goodbye, though it was much stiffer than usual and Serenity sighed once more.

"You should come play with us."

Serenity's eyes drifted to the speaker, narrowing slightly at the sight of Azula who was flanked by her friends Mai and Ty Lee. Mai was, of course, dressed in much darker colors than Azula or Ty Lee, who each wore crimson and pink respectively.

"Princess Azula, you know I'm not much of a player of games," Serenity said with rehearsed politeness. Azula had always rubbed Serenity the wrong way. It always seemed to her that the Fire Princess was putting on a face for people to see, like her true nature was much darker than anyone would wish to see.

"You're boring," Azula complained, "all you do is meditate and read books…and hang out with Zuko." The last five words were said a bit slyly to Serenity.

Mai stiffened, eyeing the older girl as if she was her competition, but Serenity did not rise to the bait.

"Your brother is better company," she told her, canting her head slightly. "But I suppose Ty Lee and I could practice some acrobatics for your amusement."

Ty Lee beamed at her. She was the one of Azula's friends that Serenity liked the most and Ty Lee had once told her she had gotten into acrobatics because she had once seen how Serenity had danced.

"That would be amazing!" Ty Lee squealed, pulling Serenity by the arm back towards the enclosure that held the turtle-duck pond that Serenity and Zuko had once sat before, eating orange slices.

"Yeah, amazing," Mai grumbled behind them, rolling her eyes as she crossed her arms in irritation.

Serenity was not blind, not even close to it. She knew that Mai had a soft heart for Zuko. Good for her. Serenity was to marry his cousin, so even if she had some sort of romantic attachment to the boy –not to say that she did, because she most certainly  _did not_ – she could not be with him. Mai would be the perfect match, Serenity had once thought to herself. Mai seemed always to be the exact opposite of cheerful and Zuko…Zuko was incredibly complicated.

"Can you show me that cartwheel you were doing earlier?" Serenity asked Ty Lee, distracting herself from her thoughts. "It was very impressive."

The praise made Ty Lee's smile widen so much that Serenity feared it might hurt her face, but if it did, she never mentioned it, far too much in her element to care. Serenity glanced back to Azula.

Azula's eyes held Serenity's for a moment and the princess smirked, but Serenity could not bring herself to be bothered. She was an airbender mere feet from a firebender with unrivaled prowess despite her young age, but Serenity was cool and calm for the first time in a long time. And even Azula couldn't frighten her with all her fire.

* * *

Serenity was mere months away from her thirteenth birthday when her world came crashing down around her. And it all started with a letter, a missive from General Iroh, her future father-in-law.

She was in a bright mood when she took it from the messenger, disregarding the mournful expression on his face as she entered into the sitting room, breaking the seal and reading its contents slowly.

At first, she thought it had to be a mistake. Her father…Lu Ten…they  _couldn't_  be  _dead_ …there had to be some sort of mistake.

Her heart was still aching from the loss of her mother only months earlier. How could she deserve this kind of cruelty? What had she done to anger the spirits so? She dismissed her staff with a shaky voice that earned her concern from them, but she disregarded that as well.

_"There might come a time when you deem it necessary to leave this land behind."_

She recalled her father's words as she broke into new sobs, her heart breaking even more. How could she  _not_  leave the Fire Nation now? The Fire Nation had taken from her so many things with its foolish war, and Serenity was so sick of losing to the war. She was sick of being the last airbender, she was sick of death, she was sick of crying over the people who were dead because of Fire Lord Azulon's family line.

"Serenity!" Fingers brushed against her shoulder.

" _Don't touch me!"_  Serenity snapped, the air picking up around her and forcing the one whom the voice belonged to backwards with a sharp gust of wind. The gasp stopped her in her tracks.

Whoever she had been expecting, it had not been Ursa who was now staring at her with a face of shock and surprise. "Serenity—" she tried to speak again, her eyes holding something that the girl couldn't decipher.

"Leave!" Serenity was angry, her pain vibrating around her in a small tornado of wind. She pointed at the door. "Run along, then! Tell your beloved Ozai there is one last airbender to  _slaughter!_ Go on!"

But Ursa did not move, her golden eyes (so much like Zuko's) soft and sad. "Oh, Serenity," she said gently, "I would never tell Ozai of your gift."

The tornado stilled and Serenity stared at Ursa, her pale eyes wide in shock, her mouth slightly gaping.  _What?_

"I am here for a favor."

"A favor?" Serenity repeated in a rather dubious manner. Was that really all she wanted? "What kind of a favor?"

"I want you to look out for Zuko," Ursa said simply.

"Look out for Zuko?" Serenity asked, a little struck. "Why?" Why would she need to? Zuko was quite capable of looking out for himself, as he had proven countless times before. Why the sudden concern? Unless… Serenity swallowed. What would happen if Fire Lord Azulon suddenly died and his throne was passed on to Ozai instead of Iroh, who had disgraced the Fire Nation by calling off his Siege of Be Sing Se after news of his son's death had reached him?

Serenity stared at Ursa like she couldn't comprehend the woman helping her husband assassinate his own father, which she couldn't. Ursa may have married the prince, but it was clear to Serenity that the marriage had been arranged by someone other than Ursa, who would have no doubt preferred to remain in the village of her birth.

"I can't anymore," Ursa said, looking pained, "I'm sorry."

"And I can't help you," Serenity told her, squaring her shoulders and staring down the woman who would soon become a fugitive. "I'm leaving. Tonight. I'm leaving the Fire Nation, and I'm sorry but not even if I loved Zuko to the ends of the earth could I stay for him. You ask the impossible…now…please, leave."

Ursa thought about trying to convince her, but Serenity wouldn't have been safe in the Fire Nation anyways. She was the last of her kind and Ursa could not ask her to stay in fear when she could leave and be free.

It took a surprisingly short amount to time for Serenity to pack up her life, strapping a pack to her back complete with a sleeping bag and a hooded cloak to hide her identity. Serenity took her staff in hand, taking one last glance around the estate, around the home that she had lived in for over twelve years, and then she turned on her heel and left it all behind.

Serenity was ready to begin the next chapter of her life, the one as an airbending master.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't really sure how to do the request of Ursa, I just knew that I was going to do it and Serenity wasn't going to be able to comply...so you get what you get...


	3. Travels and Old Friends

Serenity would be lying if she said the years following her desertion of the Fire Nation weren't hard, because that was exactly what they were. It took her two years to reach thirty-six tiers of airbending and at last earn her azure arrow tattoos that followed the flow of energy throughout the body. But her time wasn't just spent at the Air Temples, though she did feel at home there the most (avoiding the Northern Air Temple due to not wanting to disturb its current inhabitants). She had traveled through Omashu (fighting a rather one-sided battle with King Bumi at the crazy king's insistence), into Ba Sing Se (somewhere she never again wanted to return to), before heading north to where she was now.

In the middle of the ocean.

Serenity tugged slightly on her short hair with a frown on her face. Her hair was starting to grow back since she had shaved so that her tattoos could be applied to her skin, and she kind of missed her long hair. But many things had changed since she had left the Fire Nation, and that included her hair when she turned fourteen and finally reached her thirty-sixth tier of airbending.

Her clothes were another thing that had changed quickly. Her crimson clothing had been exchanged for the hues of orange and yellow that the Air Nomads wore. Now she wore a simple and light tunic a soft yellow and pants that folded into brown boots that Air Nomads had typically worn during their time and an orange shawl that covered her upper chest and shoulders.

Serenity hardly noticed the cold of the North Pole as she rowed gently through the waters, airbenders never really had that problem; they could bend the air around them as a way to insulate them from the temperature. The cold wind was sharp, but did not bother Serenity as she continued on her way, humming a soft tune to herself, but she was interrupted by the water around her turning suddenly to ice.

How rude.

Her staff was in her hands in seconds. "Hya!" She made an aggressive slice towards one of the three boats that had attempted to surround her. The force of the wind directed towards them knocked a few of the men into the water, sending the boat reeling back and the remaining men to fall to the floor of the boat.

She took in a deep breath before expelling it suddenly, aiming at the second boat, sending it much farther back than the first one, and so Serenity turned to the last one.

"Stop! We mean you no harm!" one of the men from the third boat shouted to her as she pointed her staff at them.

"Yeah? The last time someone told me that, I was chained up in an underground prison for two weeks," Serenity said stiffly, her eyes narrowed as the last of the waterbenders raised their hands in surrender. Ba Sing Se, needless to say, had not been pleasant.

"Are you truly an airbender?" another asked, this one gaping at her.

"Would you like another demonstration?" Serenity asked coolly.

The waterbenders glanced to each other in surprise, but Serenity soon found herself on the last boat standing as she was escorted inside the walls of the Northern Water Tribe, balancing on one of the sharply jutting fins.

The water tribe was unlike anything she'd ever seen before, but that could have been because the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, and the Air Temples were all built on solid and stable ground, but the water tribe was built on snow and ice (it was awing to Serenity that it somehow did not buckle under the weight of the structures that rested upon it). There were also a large number of people staring down at her. Serenity looked to the arrows painted on the backs of her hands, but she did not hide them. She had been hiding who she was for too long and she wasn't ashamed of who she was.

The boat docked with a small jolt, bringing her back down to the present and she leapt lightly off the boat to land on the snow, her eyes still focused upward, trying to take everything in all at once.

"I hear we have a visitor," an older voice commented behind her, causing her to spin around to face a man with slightly darkened skin –much like the waterbenders she had run into– and blue eyes. This man wore the crest of the water tribes over his thick jacket, so that would make him the chief…

Serenity clasped her hands together as she bowed politely. "My name is Serenity."

"It is an honor to meet you, Lady Airbender," the man responded smoothly with a bow of his own. "I am Chief Arnook."

"And I you," Serenity said, straightening once more and joining him as he led her away amidst the stares of the waterbenders who were still in a bit of disbelief at her very existence.

"I admit that I had believed that all the airbenders had been wiped out during the genocide of the Air Temples," Chief Arnook informed her as they strolled through the streets.

"Most of them had been," Serenity had to agree, "my great-grandfather was one of the victims, but his son escaped in the chaos. I'm the first airbender born to my family…and before you ask, no, I'm not the Avatar."

Chief Arnook chuckled softly at the marginally irritated look in her eyes. But she wasn't the Avatar, the Avatar may have been reborn into the Air Nomads, but that was nearly a hundred years ago, she was far too young.

"You have my sincerest apologies," Chief Arnook told her, bowing his head slightly and respectfully, which must have looked a little strange considering she was only fourteen and he was the chief; the respect he gave her despite his higher station was humbling.

"It's a simply mistake," Serenity said, a smile breaking through her mask of calm. "I hope I haven't inconvenienced you with my presence. I am advancing my knowledge of the world by traveling to various nations and villages. I would be truly grateful if you would allow me to observe your people."

Chief Arnook was familiar with how the Air Nomads did things, they were nomads for a reason, but at the same time—

"I was born in the Fire Nation, so I'm not surprised that you're so cautious," Serenity added, pausing to gaze out over a passing snow bridge, ignoring how the man momentarily stiffened.

"An airbender born in the Fire Nation?"

Serenity shifted her shoulders, a soft laugh leaving her lips. "Yes, it is quite ironic, isn't it? My mother was a non-bender and my father was a firebender, but I like air better, fire is very… _temperamental_ …" Her thoughts drifted to Zuko for not the first time.

Her eyes left the surface of the water below to fasten on his. Her lips twisted upwards at the expression his face now wore. "What?"

"I was not expecting you to be so honest," the chief informed her.

She blinked owlishly at him. "Lying isn't really my forte… so! What kind of traditions does the Northern Water Tribe have?"

* * *

Serenity made good on her request to further her knowledge of the world and she ended up spending three weeks in the North Pole, which was longer than she had anticipated, but the vast culture kept her busy almost every day. She enjoyed it, but she doubted she would want to live in the constant cold, she preferred a warmer temperature.

Princess Yue was a form of intrigue to Serenity, because she had a bit of a spiritual presence, the essence of Tui shone under her skin. But Serenity knew better than to pry into someone else's past, she may have been open about her heritage, but she typically evaded the questions revolving around her family and how she had ended up as a nomad in the first place.

The waterbending master Pakku was an interesting character, Serenity soon discovered. The movements he made when manipulating the water were fluid like the element, not like anything Serenity would ever seen used in a fight. They had entered into a short battle, in which Pakku had narrowly won, and Serenity had to admit she was quite impressed with his skill, though he didn't seem to think very highly of female benders.

But the days passed until finally it was time for Serenity to leave, and she did so with a bright smile. Chief Arnook had gifted her with two armbands colored with various blues and the open invitation to visit again.

"The Lady Airbender is always welcome in our land of ice and snow," he told her, making her smile.

"I'll keep it in mind," Serenity promised, "but if you do see me again, it might be a while…there are many other places I want to visit first."

"I understand." Chief Arnook watched her go as his daughter came up beside him, her eyes intent on Serenity's back as she placed her bag of supplies into a boat, lodging her staff securely close to her feet as she took an ore in hand and began to row out into the open ocean.

"It must be hard," Yue mentioned beside him, "being on her own…the last of her kind."

Chief Arnook wrapped an arm reassuringly around his daughter's shoulders. "Lady Serenity is a strong girl." Truth be told, he was actually surprised that it didn't weigh more heavily on her than one would think. But then she had lived the first few years of her life without the knowledge that the Fire Nation, the land she had grown up in, was responsible for the death of her kind…or maybe she grieved for her people in a different way. One could never be sure.

It was a few days out at sea for Serenity, even if she used her airbending to give her a bit of a boost, and the first place she went to was the Western Air Temple. It was also the first place she went when she left the Fire Nation two years ago (had it really been that long?). The Western Air Temple was not like the other Air Temples, and that was one of the reasons Serenity liked it, another was that it had very pleasant currents of air that flowed through each chamber that had been built. Of course, that wasn't to say that she liked it over the other temples, each one she liked for different reasons. The Eastern Air Temple was the most spiritual, the Southern Air Temple was the place she felt closest to her great-grandfather's guiding spirit, and then there was the Northern Air Temple, but she never approached that one, it had its own inhabitants and she didn't feel like intruding.

Serenity sighed in relief as she flopped down onto her makeshift bed, her arms practically noodles beside her. Sleep did not come to her immediately that night, but that was no surprise. Her father had always said she had an overactive mind (which might have had something to do with her walking through the Spirit World most nights), there were lots of things that Serenity could contemplate in a night.

Unthinkingly, Serenity raised one of her exhausted hands to where her burn rested under her sleeve, the marred red and pink flesh as obvious as the day she had gotten it. Her thoughts drifted to Zuko and she was filled with regret not for the first time since she had left her home.

Princess Ursa's request the day she left still rang in her ears and Serenity wondered if it wouldn't have been better for her to stay.

Serenity expelled a long slow sigh, throwing her arm over her eyes as she rolled over. Maybe she needed to stop thinking so much. She closed her eyes and wished herself as far away as she dared.

* * *

It was a disturbance in the air that awoke Serenity the next day and she used the air around her to lift her to her feet, a frenzied panic building up inside her as she grabbed her staff, leaping out of the stone window mere seconds before the sound of heavy footsteps entered into her room.

"Someone's been living here," a male voice commented and Serenity took a deep breath, shooting out a gust of wind into the room, causing her few things to clutter and knocking the Fire Nation shoulders flat on their backs. She skidded on the ground, dancing through the air to avoid a blast of fire aimed at her. Her feet connected with the wall as she raced down the hall with a wild laugh.

"Ha-ha! You misse- _oof!"_

A sudden blow to her stomach sent her sprawling backwards, coughing in an attempt to regain the air that had been knocked out of her. She groaned, rolling her eyes slightly. "Come  _on!_  Don't you people have better things to do than—"

"Silence!"

Serenity froze. The voice, raspy and deeper than she had been expecting from a boy so young, rang with familiarity. His skin was almost an unnatural pallor and he had narrowed golden eyes and dark hair bound tightly high on his head. But it was not his features that caught her the most, for they were typical of Fire Nation citizens and Serenity had long since grown used to seeing that combination in almost every face. It was the binding that was hiding half of his face from view, but a mere flutter of the wind lifted the bandage slightly allowing her a glimpse of burned flesh.

But take that away and only look at half of his face…

Grey eyes widened. "Zuko?"

Confusion flashed through the thirteen year old's eyes briefly and he raised his fist towards her again, but she was too stunned. "How do you know my name,  _Avatar_?"

Serenity blinked and then she burst out laughing.  _"Avatar?_  You must be joking!" The idea of  _her_  being the  _Avatar_  was laughable! She swirled the air around her, landing lightly on her feet a second time as the prince's posture stiffened, preparing to strike her with fire.

"Really, Zuko?" Serenity said in a dry voice. "You've already burned me once, are you really that quick to burn me a second time?"

His eye widened in surprise and realization, glancing up and down her figure. She could hardly be mistaken for a man with how her tunic was tied, but the short brown hair could be convincing if one didn't look too hard. The combination of the twinkling grey eyes and the soft brown of her hair… "Serenity?"

The older and shorter man behind Zuko that Serenity hadn't given a second thought started briefly, and a glance told her it was the man who would have been her father-in-law; General Iroh, the Dragon of the West.

"Hello," Serenity said shortly, spreading her feet and holding her hands in front of her, protective and loose –but quick to act if the need ever arose. This Serenity was nothing like the one Zuko remembered from two years ago; this Serenity was one who could hold on her own, nothing like the girl whose highest interest had been in dancing. "I'm afraid you're intruding on the land of my ancestors, Zuko, I expect an explanation." Her tone was clipped and direct, belying her disapproval.

"We're searching for the Avatar," Zuko said through gritted teeth. "Where is he?"

"And you assume I know?" Serenity asked, pointing to herself, innocence lining her face.

"You're an airbender." The words left his mouth strangely. Of all the things Serenity could have vanished from –kidnapping, murder, suicide in the face of the deaths of the people she loved– he could have never imagined this. He hadn't even considered that she had left of her own accord, no matter how many times countless people had said that the possibility was likely.  _She wouldn't have just upped and left_ , he had defended her,  _she wouldn't just leave!_

But she had.

And she was a pillar of strength, a contrast to the crippling sorrow she had had before. Her eyes were brighter than they had been for years, shining like twin stars despite her irritation, and the blue arrow on her forehead (visible on the backs of her hands as well) looked as though it belonged.

For once, Serenity looked at peace.

Serenity could feel heat blooming under her skin the longer he stared at her. This was so unlike him! The way that he looked at her…it reminded her of Lu Ten. A cold fist clenched around her heart.

" _Zuko's very fond of you," Lu Ten had said._

" _Of course he is, we're friends!" Serenity had responded, her lips drawn slightly downwards into a frown._

" _You know what I mean," her betrothed admonished._

_And she did. Lu Ten was nice and kind, but Zuko understood her in a way he never could. They were best friends, but…Serenity was to marry Lu Ten, and it did not matter if she had a fondness for Zuko as well, because she could never act on such feelings or thoughts._

She couldn't remember when anyone had ever looked at her like that.

"I am," she said, finally remembering his words. "Unfortunately, I cannot help you in your endeavor. Though I may not know the Avatar, I would never give up a fellow Air Nomad to be taken to the Fire Lord." Her eyes became harder than was thought possible. "There are so few of us left, as I'm certain you have gathered."

The jibe wasn't subtle in the least, though Serenity excelled in that aspect. Fire needing air to breathe being a rather fine example (how had Zuko not seen it?).

"Serenity—" Him saying her name stung her in a way. Here he was in the home of her ancestors, garbed in the armor of the men who had taken an entire nation from the world.

She was  _insulted._

Serenity's arms moved faster than Zuko or anyone else could follow and the buffet of strong wind obscured their view long enough for the girl to vanish into the sky.

* * *

"Why are you here, General Iroh?"

She had seemed so surreal hours ago, an  _airbender_ , one of the last of her mighty race, but now she seemed to be just a girl, relaxed and unconcerned.

Serenity's bare feet were dipped into the stream, her boots laying nearby and pant sleeves rolled up as she sat on the bank, her arms curled over her knees, a brooding expression on her face.

"Can I not inquire of my former-future daughter-in-law?" Iroh asked with a soft chuckle that hid the pain of his son's death. It had only been two years since Lu Ten had been cut down in Ba Sing Se, but that did not ease the sorrow any.

Serenity gave a short laugh, straightening her back slightly as the man dropped to sit beside her, keeping away from the gentle push of the tide. "It's quite a mouthful."

"Indeed," Iroh chuckled as well. "You are still in love with a prince, I see."

Two conflicting emotions warred on Serenity's face; embarrassment and guilt. Both turned her face a shade of red.

"General—"

"Please, call me Iroh," the older, wiser man insisted, "I am no longer a general, merely an advisor of sorts."

He's much more carefree than Serenity remembered, but she could infer why; Lu Ten's death.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Sorry?" Iroh asked in confusion. "Sorry for what?"

"For not loving Lu Ten enough," she said honestly. "Maybe if he hadn't felt the need to prove himself, he would—" Serenity swallowed noisily, her hands clenching into the grass beside her.

"You are not to blame for that," Iroh warned her, "my son would have gone to battle whether you wished him to or not…Besides, matters of the heart are complex, it is like trying to navigate a labyrinth in the dark."

Serenity had forgotten how he sometimes spoke in riddles.

"Zuko is lucky to have such a good friend," he told her, "and perhaps something more." His gaze cast significantly towards her, but this time she did not blush. All she did was sigh.

"I doubt we're friends anymore," she muttered, her voice low, "besides…" Her lips pursed as she flopped onto her back, scowling into the sunlight. "We are worlds apart and I'm not sure I like this new Zuko…the old one was much nicer."

He patted her on the shoulder, a fatherly gesture that made Serenity jump. "Despite appearances, the strongest feelings my nephew has ever had were always held towards you."

Serenity said nothing to that, merely turning away from him –no doubt an effort to hide her face. "Perhaps that emotion is hate. He is harsher than he was."

"He may have his reasons."

"Like that bandage?" Serenity asked, rolling back to face him, dew clinging to half of her head, giving her hair a half-fluffy, half-sleek appearance. "It looked like a burn."

"It was a burn," Iroh said a bit morosely, and something in his voice made Serenity sit up and listen intently as he explained to her the instances that had led to the hardening of Zuko's heart. From his mother's disappearance to his failed duel of Agni Kai against his own father that had resulted in the marring of a good part of his face. It was revolting, the idea that a man would scar his own son in such a way; Serenity knew her own father –or even her mother– would never lower himself to something so cruel and heartless.

She felt sorry for Zuko and regret plucked at her heartstrings.

"Do you think," Serenity said in a soft voice, as if hoping to not be heard over the smooth and slow rush of the water, "that if I stayed…things might have been different?"

"I don't pretend to know what could have been or what was," Iroh said simply, "but what I do know is that you have grown up well and happily."

"Even if I'm an airbender?" Serenity interjected, very interested in his response.

"Even then," Iroh promised, sparing her a kindly smile.

Serenity smiled reflexively back. "Is it sad that I'm kind of hoping that one day Zuko will be like he used to be?"

Not so filled with hate that the heat of the emotion filled the air around him.

"It is never sad," Iroh chastised her, "to have hope."

The smile gave him this time was completely genuine and filled with light. Despite that the monks taught that hope was nothing but a distraction, Serenity couldn't help but be comforted by the thought.

The idea that the Zuko that had once climbed in through her window with an orange and an apology for burning her might still be there deep down inside gave her hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, some blushing action for Serenity! I just had to add some almost not-there fluff, to set up things in the future! Because how adorable is it that Zuko was crushing on his older friend who was engaged to his cousin?...Well, I think it's cute, so whatever. I don't think there'll be much of Zuko during the first few chapters, though, because it'll be more about Serenity's journey than Zuko's, but there will be some development at some point.


	4. A Swamp of Visions

The wind ruffled Serenity's hair as she flew high up in the air, weightless almost with nothing but her glider and the open air. It was this kind of freedom that she had been missing over the past few weeks traveling by foot. It was a bit tedious, but Serenity couldn't fly everywhere, she'd just get exhausted all the time, and that wouldn't be good for anyone.

Her eyes dropped to the swamp she was flying over. Serenity's eyes drifted out of focus, a steady thrum from within calling out to her. The fins of her glider retracted, returning to a staff as she landed lightly on a high branch before sliding down the sloping and slanted moss-covered trunk, carefully avoiding the murky water below.

Serenity gazed around in awe of her surroundings. This swamp…it was more than just a swamp, even she could tell that. She placed a hand against the trunk she was standing on, closing her eyes and breathing in and out deeply. And then she recoiled suddenly in surprise. It felt like…it was  _alive_. Of course, it was alive to begin with, but it felt like the whole swamp was one entity.

"This day keeps getting stranger and stranger," Serenity muttered, a soft breeze ruffling her chestnut hair that had grown out more since the time she had first seen Zuko in years, more than fourteen months previously.

Serenity had also picked up a habit of talking to herself; they were typically the only words she ever spoke during the day when traveling. She really needed to get a nice traveling companion.

She stepped lightly over the trunk to balance on a thin branch, weaving through vines before pausing at a voice.

"I can feel you, Ren," the voice chuckled and Serenity turned to stare. She'd never seen the girl before in her life, but she had just called Serenity by her nickname (something only her mother had called her before). Her blind eyes stared sightlessly in front of her, hidden slightly by dark strands of hair and she bore a superior smirk on her face. The green of her fighting uniform told Serenity she was of the Earth Kingdom. The girl stabbed a finger at her. "You've got to do better than that if you want to slip by me, Ren."

"Do I know you?" Serenity asked in complete befuddlement, but when she blinked, the girl had gone.

Serenity twisted around wildly, but there was no trace of her. "Alright…this is a little more than weird."

She leapt through the air, scaling two more trees before skidding to a stop, her eyes wide as she stared at the figure in front of her.

It was her mother.

Her grey eyes were glinting like they always had, crinkling in the corners from her constant smiling, her soft brown hair swaying in the wind as she held out a hand towards Serenity.

Serenity's vision went blurry, the tears building up in her eyes before she could stop them. "Mother!" She was so close to her now, almost like she could reach out to her and hold her hand like she used to when she was a child, but all that connected with her hand was fog. A few tears escaped her eyes as her lower lip wobbled. And then she gritted her teeth, forcing down her emotions, her heart burning in her chest.

Her hands clenched into fists beside her and the wind picked up around her, swirling around her like a miniature cyclone, but then it broke suddenly and Serenity sat down hard on the branch, pulling her knees up to her chest. Wet grey eyes peered over her knees.

Serenity didn't like this swamp, not in the slightest. She didn't know who that girl was, or why she had called her by her old nickname, but she didn't need old memories of her mother to remind her of everything she had already lost. She was a nomad, she had no home, not anymore.

Serenity released her grip on her legs, allowing them to hang over the edge, unafraid of the distance between the branch she rested on and the mud-crusted ground. She leaned forward marginally, resting her elbows on her knees, raking a hand through her loose hair.

Her great-grandfather could no longer give her advice, having passed on all his knowledge to her, but she couldn't help but feel lost.

"It will be your duty to pass on the learnings of the Air Nomads on to the next generation," he had told her the very last time they had ever spoken. But Serenity doubted there would be a next generation in a bit of a morose thought. Bending was generally passed down through blood, and only two boys had ever captured her interest. One was dead and the other was obsessed with finding a myth.

But the Avatar still lived, Gyatso had been steadfast in that belief, and Serenity felt that she should be as well.

"Faith is not unshakable," she murmured, reminding herself one of the many teachings that Gyatso had taught her. "All beings experience doubt at one stage or another, you can either grow stronger or weaker because of it."

Serenity exhaled slowly and stood with purpose, pulling her staff from her back where she had lodged it before and turning it into her glider in an instant. She shot up the trees to land on the leafy tops before launching into the air, locking her fingers into the fins, twirling in the air, the wind cutting into her eyes drawing liquid from them from the speed at which the air was colliding with them.

What Serenity really needed was someone with boundless wisdom, and only one man fit that description that still lived. Serenity groaned slightly, her face falling in disappointment; now all she had to do was sneak past the Fire Nation soldiers on the ship.

* * *

"Ginseng tea?"

Iroh held the steaming cup up in the air and a hand took it, the owner of the hand sitting down opposite him and his Pai Sho board.

Serenity was older and calmer, having grown since the last time they met. Her tattoos were as bright as ever, her soft brown hair hardly hiding the arrow on her forehead, but there was a kind of exhaustion that lined the area around her eyes.

"You always did like your tea," Serenity mused, resting her staff against the wall as she inspected the rounded tiles that bore various images. "I expected more guards on a vessel with a prince."

Iroh gave the merest shrug. "We have no threat in the middle of the ocean; why concern ourselves with constant shifts when rest is better?"

Her lips curled. "That doesn't sound very…strategic."

"Perhaps not," Iroh conceded, "but not everyone on this ship is as fond of Prince Zuko as you are."

"No one," Serenity corrected with pursed lips and an irritated frown, "is as fond of Prince Zuko as I am."

She placed the white lotus tile at the center of the board, surprising Iroh whose eyes narrowed slightly in surprise. Did she know what that move meant to a certain group of people? The frown that had previously been on her lips twisted upwards into a sly smile. She must have known…

"The white lotus gambit," Iroh said carefully, watching her reaction, "not many still cling to the ancient ways."

"Those who do can always find a friend," Serenity said with a soft chuckle, repeating the words her father had taught her so many years ago.

Surprise colored Iroh's golden eyes as he placed his first piece down, Serenity following with one of her own. Her father had taught her many things, this one he had never given an explanation to, but Serenity was a smart girl who prized knowledge above almost all things (something that had almost lost her her head six months back when she had run into Wan Shi Tong, a spirit that coveted a library of knowledge; luckily, Serenity had some form of knowledge to exchange, or she doubted she would have been allowed to peruse the many books and scrolls of her people), it hadn't taken much for her to discover a society called the Order of the White Lotus.

Serenity placed the last and final piece, the tiles taking the form of a lotus flower.

Iroh gave his own chuckle in return. "General Hoshi taught you well. The White Lotus opens wide to those who know her secrets."

The board cleared and they began to play for real.

"What exactly is the Order of the White Lotus?" Serenity asked, moving a tile forwards on the board.

"It is an ancient secret society that is devoted to the sharing of knowledge despite the boundaries of the four nations," Iroh told her, "your father told you the code, did he not?"

"He did," Serenity said with a sigh, "but I'm not here because of the Order, I'm here for some…advice."

"Oh?"

Serenity lifted the cup to her lips, blowing softly on the hot liquid.

"I travel around a lot," she explained, moving another piece on the board, "being a nomad and all, and I've come across a lot of…strange things in my travels. But I'm someone who often travels to the Spirit World so what I view as strange and what others view as strange are two very different things…" Serenity realized that she was babbling, but at this point she couldn't quite bring herself to care. "I found this…swamp…and it was  _beyond_  strange."

"How so?" queried Iroh, taking a sip of his own tea.

"Well, it sort showed me these visions," Serenity admitted in an evasive manner. "The first one I didn't understand at all. It was this girl, a little blind girl who called me "Ren," but I haven't used that name in ages."

"She is not someone from your past, then?" Iroh asked, stroking his short beard thoughtfully.

"No, not that I can recall," Serenity said frowning thoughtfully, "and I think a small blind girl would be pretty memorable…I didn't have much of a life outside of my estate or the palace." The last part was said a bit dryly before her voice became a bit somber. "And then I thought I saw my mother."

Iroh's eyes softened at the downcast expression that had appeared suddenly on Serenity's face. "Ah…perhaps there is something spiritual about the swamp you were in." He took the still-steaming kettle of tea and filled her nearly empty cup.

"What do you mean?" Serenity asked, accepting her refilled cup of tea.

"Well, time does not affect the Spirit World," Iroh said reasonably, "it may have shown you your mother because she represents your past, but the girl could represent your future, someone you will meet in the coming years."

Serenity blew on her tea once more, taking a sip and allowing the scalding fluid to scorch down her throat. "Have you ever been to the Spirit World, Iroh?"

His face morphed into a saddened expression and Serenity immediately regretted asking the question in the first place.

"Once," he said after a very long moment, "in search of Lu Ten."

"Oh…Lu Ten wouldn't have remained in the Spirit World," Serenity said, fighting to keep her voice calm. "The Spirit World isn't the afterlife, only people with heightened spiritual awareness can transcend from the physical world to the Spirit World after their deaths as an embodiment of spirit energy."

Iroh patted her hand fondly, releasing a short and light-hearted laugh. "If only I had known then; it would have saved me so much time."

Serenity's lips curled upwards into a smile of her own and she dropped her other hand on top of his. "Thank you, Iroh, for the advice, and the tea."

"Good tea can bring out that which many overlook," Iroh told her and Serenity laughed.

That man truly did love his tea, didn't he?

* * *

Toph considered it very irritating when she found someone in one of the tunnels that the badger-moles near Gaoling. It was the only place she could practice her earthbending without anyone seeing. Though she did regret shooting a stone at the person in her hasty realization that she wasn't alone.

"…Sorry about that," she said, making the girl laugh.

She was older, Toph could tell by her voice as well as her height, though it didn't seem like she weighed much; she seemed to move with the air.

"Believe me, having a rock thrown at me is the least of my troubles," the girl assured her, "my name's Serenity, by the way."

Toph canted her head slightly at the girl, feeling the soft warmth of her small fire that rested in front of her. "Toph."

"You're an earthbender, I assume?" Toph liked her voice, it was cultured, but at the same time lacked the gentleness and high volume that many ladies bore. High pitched voices weren't something Toph was a fan of, being blind and all.

"Yes…" Toph drew the word out, keeping an eye on (figuratively speaking; maybe it would be better to say keeping a foot on) her companion's vibrations. "Are you a bender?"

"Yes." Her vibrations did not lie, but if Toph had expected her to elaborate without further prodding, she was disappointed.

"What kind?"

"Air."

Toph's sightless eyes shot wide at the words uttered from Serenity. "Really?" Then they narrowed suspiciously. "Prove it."

A sudden gust of air in her face threw her onto her back.

"Proof enough?" Serenity asked in amusement.

Toph huffed a breath, causing the long fringe in front of her eyes to flutter upwards before returning to fall in front of her eyes. Not that she cared; it wasn't like she needed to see. "I guess…you a noble?" She must have been. The way she formed her words, with a precise tongue, was how Toph had been taught.

Serenity started slightly in surprise. Toph smirked; she'd caught her off guard.

"I used to be," Serenity admitted, her voice a little distant and Toph could almost imagine a pair of eyes drifting out of focus (if that was what eyes looked like). "But I left that behind years ago…back when I was twelve."

"How old are you?"

Serenity smiled; Toph was very direct. "Fifteen. You?"

"Ten," Toph said shortly, and Serenity wasn't surprised. Toph's stature was short and sturdy –like an earthbender should be– but it was clear that she still had some growing to do, while Serenity on the other hand was nearing the end of her growth spurt, and even that didn't leave her very tall (she thanked the spirits her height was regarded as average, because she doubted anyone would take her seriously if she was so short).

"Are you from the Earth Kingdom?" Toph asked, continuing to bombard her with questions, and Serenity could only laugh in amusement.

As the night darkened, Toph asked her question after question; Serenity wasn't sure what she hoped to gain in the end, but she allowed herself to be practically interrogated by an abrasive ten-year old blind girl. She was, after all, the girl she had seen in the swamp, albeit maybe two or so years younger than that visage, and that made her incredibly interesting to Serenity.

There came a point where Toph had to leave to sneak back into her family's estate and she had asked in a strangely subdued tone if Serenity would be there the next night. Serenity's eyes had softened. She knew what it was like to grow up in a large estate with many rules, her own parents had been surprisingly lenient, allowing her more freedom than most nobleman's daughters got, though Serenity suspected this might have been because of her airbending. Serenity also knew what it was like to be without a friend. Her first friend, the first person she had met that was slightly near her age (and by slightly, she meant six years her senior) had been Lu Ten. Being betrothed to him resulted in her being in the royal palace for hours on end, which was how she had met Zuko.

Serenity suspected that Toph was just very lonely.

So she stayed a second day in that tunnel, unafraid of the large badger-mole that had noticed her during the day, nudging her shoulder in an almost affectionate manner and staring at her with sightless eyes that reminded Serenity of Toph.

"You just travel around?" Toph asked the next night under the cover of darkness, probing her fingers into the earth with one hand, holding a chipped cup of tea with the other (Serenity blamed Iroh for that).

"Wherever I like," Serenity agreed with a smile, "From the Air Temples to the North and South Poles, I've been educating myself on the world, Air Nomad, you know…and there are many places to—" Serenity slipped, nearly saying 'see' before quickly switching it, "–go."

"That's the life," Toph muttered, downing her tea in one go. She looked to Serenity to be very deep in thought. "Could I go with you one day?"

The question surprised Serenity. "You barely know me," she reminded her.

"You know me better than my parents," Toph retorted, a small scowl morphing onto her lips.

"What if I was from the Fire Nation?" Serenity asked, holding her breath.

"So what?" Toph said in an uncaring way. "Perfection doesn't exist. Who wouldn't want to travel around with a Fire Nation Air Nomad?"

Serenity can't resist smiling at her young friend. "How about we make a deal?"

"What kind of deal?" Toph asked in a shrewd voice, wary of any quick decisions.

"What if," Serenity began, "I came back to Gaoling in –say– twenty-two months or so? When you are twelve and perhaps…an earthbending master?"

Toph looked at her, her eyes blank and unblinking and then she punched her in the arm.

"You're on, Ren."

Serenity smiled despite the pain in her arm; it was the first time someone had used her nickname in years.

* * *

The choker was ice against Serenity's throat. It was a simple lotus tile fastened to a bit of cloth, a message to someone Iroh had suggested she meet (but it would be several months before she was going to attempt to enter into the Fire Nation). It meant nothing in the South Pole.

If anything, Serenity thought to herself, the South Pole was colder than the North. And much… _bleaker_. The jutting icebergs hid any sort of establishment, but Serenity had the feeling that the Southern Water Tribe wasn't going to be anything like the Northern Water Tribe.

Serenity swerved her small boat to avoid crashing into a large block of ice, swirling the air carefully around the boat as a precaution so that it stayed clear away from other dangerous bits of ice.

And it was then that a sudden cry distracted her, jerking her attention upwards.

The boy couldn't have been more than thirteen years old with a wolftail of brown hair a few shades darker than Serenity's, wide blue eyes, and skin a contrast to her fairness. And he was falling with a loud wail.

Serenity spun the air around her finger, creating a funnel that encased the boy, dropping him safely onto the boat, seated directly in front of her.

Naturally, the first thing out of his mouth was: "Fire Nation spy!"

Serenity blinked owlishly at the boy for a moment and then she burst out laughing, her laughter echoing off of the high-reaching ice around them. "Do I look like a Fire Nation spy?" she asked in amusement.

The boy looked at her, his eyes narrowed suspiciously, but it was much less impressive than Toph's, despite the girl being blind and a couple years younger.

"What's your name?" she asked.

The boy jabbed a finger towards her, making her arch an eyebrow. "That's exactly what a Fire Nation spy would ask!"

"Well, I could just call you  _'boy'_ ," Serenity said with an air of contemplation, cupping her chin thoughtfully in one hand, the other holding on to the ore that had very nearly been swept away by the water current an hour previously.

The boy sulked slightly, crossing his arms and scowling at the water beneath the boat. "Sokka."

"What?"

"My name is Sokka," he said, a look of irritation splashed upon his face.

"Hello, Sokka, I'm Serenity," Serenity responded in kind, looking over his clothes; a thick blue anorak with trousers and seal mittens. "I'm going to assume you're from the Southern Water Tribe with those kind of clothes…are we close, then?"

"Why do you want to know?" Sokka asked, his arms still crossed and his expression still sulky.

"I'm kind of looking for your tribe," Serenity admitted, realizing full well that that would only fuel his beliefs of her being a Fire Nation spy (something that Serenity still found incredibly hilarious). "I've been to the Northern Water Tribe, but never the Southern."

"You're a traveler?" Sokka asked, only relaxing just slightly, but Serenity considered that a major victory.

"A nomad," Serenity corrected with a smile. "Like my people."

"Your…people?" Sokka repeated.

"The Air Nomads," Serenity told him freely. It wasn't as though she was trying to hide who she was, after all, her arrow tattoos were clear for all to see.

Blue eyes blinked a few times in disbelief before Sokka forced a laugh. "Right," he drawled, "sure, you are."

Serenity cocked another eyebrow at him. "How did you think you got in this boat?" She gestured to the one the two of them were sitting in. "How  _convenient_  would it be that a gust of wind just _happened_  to hit and just  _happened_  to bring you slowly to down into this boat."

The heavy sarcasm was made quite obvious and Sokka's soft brown cheeks darkened. "The Air Nomads have been dead for almost a hundred years, though!"

"Really?" Serenity said dryly. "I had  _no idea."_  It wasn't like this wasn't something she had been taught as a child. "Watch and learn Water Tribe boy, we'll see who's wrong and who's flying."

"Humans can't fly!" Sokka disagreed, clutching the sides of the boat as Serenity stood. She pulled her staff free, the fins of the glider extending as she placed it behind her.

"Humans can't fly," Serenity agreed, repeating his words, a bright grin spreading across her face, "but airbenders  _can!"_

And then she launched into the air, making Sokka yelp as the boat rocked from side to side, nearly upending him and her small bag of supplies that she took with her everywhere. He only managed to right the boat after a few seconds had passed and it was only then that he finally looked up and into the sky.

Sokka's mouth dropped open and his eyes bugged out in shock.

Serenity had hardly looked so impressive when he landed in her boat –fifteen, slight, carefree– but how in the name of the  _spirits_ —

She was flying through the air, buffeted only by the wind , twirling and circling and doing things he'd never seen before.

It was amazing!

And then Sokka sighed;  _great_ , she was just like Katara wasn't she? That was just what Sokka needed, some benders driving him insane…just  _great._


	5. Of Prisons

"You'll have to forgive the skepticism, but no one's heard of airbenders in nearly one hundred years."

"Yes, I gathered that." Serenity was sitting across from Sokka's father, Chief Hakoda, her legs crossed as she regaled her tales of nomadic life. Sokka's sister, Katara, looked very much like her father and brother with the same skin tone, hair, and wide blue eyes as she listened intently to Serenity's speech. "I believe it would be quite safe to say that I am the last of my kind, not including the Avatar, I suppose."

Hakoda's eyes trailed over her. Truth be told, he was actually surprised by her appearance more than anything. Serenity was only fifteen but the way she talked it seemed like she was much older, much more mature. The way she walked belied her strength; each step was precise and light, as if it was a dance. Hakoda had seen many warriors walk the way she did, though he suspected her affinity to air might have had something to do with it as well.

"The line of airbenders will probably die with me," Serenity admitted, thanking Sokka and Katara's grandmother Kanna for the sea prune stew that she had handed her, a sheepish smile wormed its way onto her face.

"You're not going to have kids?" Katara piped up, her cheeks burning a faint pink when Serenity's eyes flickered over to her.

Serenity's mind drifted to Lu Ten's smiling face as he stood before her garbed in his armor, minutes away from being shipped out to sea, and then she thought of Zuko, his face partially burned, his voice filled with anger. "That would involve having romantic feelings towards someone," Serenity said with a shrug, ignoring the beats of her heart. "I'm a little too busy traveling the world, anyways."

Katara laughed and Sokka sniggered.

"But you're an airbender!" Katara added, practically bouncing in elation as she beamed to the older girl. "You can teach me!"

Serenity arched an eyebrow. "Airbending is very different than waterbending, you'd need to learn waterbending from a waterbending master, it's either that or going back to the original source."

"The original source?" Katara asked eagerly. "What's the original source?"

"Those that used the bending art first," Serenity explained, sipping her stew. "For the airbenders it was the sky bison, for the earthbenders it was the badger-moles, for the firebenders it was the dragons, but for waterbenders it was La and Tui, the spirits of the ocean and the moon."

"Spirits?" Sokka scoffed. "Really?"

Serenity frowned at him. "I pass over into the Spirit World on an almost daily basis, but I've never met the moon or ocean spirit, so you might be out of luck."

"Oh," Katara said, her voice disheartened, drowning in her sea prunes.

"But that might not be the only way," Serenity mused, causing Katara to brighten immediately. "I could try something, if you like, but I'm not sure if it'll work."

"What kind of something?" Sokka asked suspiciously.

"I could teach her some of the movements that I remember from the North Pole," Serenity said simply, "It'll be up to her if she can bend from them."

Sokka still eyed her suspiciously, but Hakoda smiled kindly.

"Can she? Dad, please!" Katara appealed to her father, her eyes huge and blue. Serenity stared on impressed; was that how Zuko felt every time she had made him do something he didn't want to by using those eyes of hers?

" _Spirits, just get off me!" he complained, pushing her away, his cheeks burning a bright, vibrant red. "Can't you bother someone else?"_

Serenity's face fell slightly as she remembered Zuko, his voice echoing in her mind as if it had only been a few days previously, but it had been years. Serenity pressed a few cool fingers to her forehead giving a long slow sigh, before the fingers drifted downwards to hold her chin and cover her lips; it was an unconscious gesture that Serenity had often adopted when she was deep in thought.

"Thank you."

"Hm?" Serenity jerked out of her trance to stare at Kanna in surprise. "What do you mean?"

Kanna's eyes shimmered and the wrinkles around her eyes became more prominent. "For offering to train Katara; the last of our waterbenders were taken many years ago."

"By the Fire Nation, I assume," Serenity said with a somber note. The Fire Nation did seem to be in the center of everything, didn't it? "But I can only help her get so far," Serenity added in an attempt to distract herself from her thoughts, "I am no waterbender, I've only watched them perform in battle."

"Yes!" Katara crowed in excitement, cutting across Serenity and Kanna's conversation before grabbing Serenity by the arm and pulling her outside and into the cool air. "Come on!"

"Alright, so the first thing you have to remember is that water is the element of change," Serenity explained once they were a little bit away. "It deals with grace and fluidity; you must be able to turn your opponent's attack against them. Do you understand?"

Katara nodded seriously despite the bright and infectious grin on her face.

"The element is an extension of yourself, just like a sword is to a swordsman," Serenity told her, holding her hand out and twirling her finger in the air, causing a small tornado to appear and quickly disperse, very much like the one she had used to catch Sokka hours earlier. "It's not about how much strength you have, muscles aren't something to rely on for airbending or waterbending, they are the lighter elements. Never try to force an element." Serenity winced. "I once saw a firebender attempt that…let's just say he was put out of commission for a few months."

Katara swallowed. She had never actually considered that bending could turn on the bender.

"Now," Serenity continued, "here is one form I remember quite well…memorize this."

There might not have been many forms that Serenity could recall (being far more interested in the historical parts of the learning), but the ones she did were worth teaching to Katara who was so clearly in desperate need of a teacher.

It was a pity that the North Pole didn't think much of females fighting with bending or without.

* * *

"Going off to fight in the war?"

"Not really your scene, I guess?" Hakoda mused as he helped his men pack up their things.

Serenity scowled, crossing her arms in irritation. "Just because the Air Nomads are pacifists doesn't mean that I'm not capable of holding my own."

Several men nearby laughed, including Hakoda's close friend Bato, earning them a blast of air to the face that sent them sprawling for their troubles. Serenity rested a hand on her hip, arching an eyebrow.

"Whose laughing now?" she retorted, before returning to her conversation with Hakoda. "But seriously, be careful. The firebenders are ruthless even if the non-benders in the army aren't."

"You worry too much, Serenity," Hakoda replied with a small smile.

"I have seen what this war has done to all the nations, the Fire Nation included," Serenity said, her voice somber and her eyes morose. "The world is out of balance…just try to stay alive, Katara and Sokka need a father."

Hakoda's smile towards the airbender softened. He realized he'd never asked her about her parents, and there were only two conclusions he could draw; she either ran away or her parents were dead.

"How long have you been on your own?" he asked her, tossing another bag up to a crewmember to be placed on one of the few ships.

"Since I was twelve," Serenity said with a shrug.

"It must be lonely."

"To others," Serenity responded unconcerned, "but I am an airbender, we thrive on the freedom to choose our own paths." Her eyes went past his shoulder to where Sokka was stalking away from his sister, his head soaking and an annoyed expression plastered to his face, a stark contrast to the elation on hers. "Perhaps when you see your children again they will be a skilled waterbender and a fine warrior."

"I'm sure they will be," Hakoda agreed, pride shining in his eyes as he followed her gaze to his children. "Thank you, for helping Katara."

"I hardly helped," Serenity scoffed, "believe me, she'll benefit from a true waterbending master, as an airbending master I can offer little advice. It's a pity she's the only waterbender in the South Pole."

"Yes, it is," Hakoda murmured.

"Luckily there are still waterbenders in the world," Serenity added, "it was a bit more difficult for me. All the airbenders are dead." She spun the air around her between her fingers without much of a care. "But the Spirit World was very helpful."

Bato rolled his eyes to Hakoda. Many of the Southern Water Tribe men were skeptics towards natures of the spirit, something Sokka was quick to adopt and even Hakoda had to admit that he found it rather difficult to believe in such things.

Serenity bowed respectfully, her hands clasping into the familiar Fire Nation way. She had never spoken about that either. It was different in the Northern Water Tribe, where she had freely admitted to her lineage to the chief, but he had only been indirectly affected by the Fire Nation, his wife had died of an illness while Hakoda's had been killed by a Fire Nation soldier. Serenity was sure that if Katara and Sokka knew she was from the Fire Nation she would be watched more suspiciously and angrily.

"Safe travels and may the spirits guide your way," she said simply, "but I'm sure we'll meet again."

Hakoda bowed as well, another smile brushing his lips. "I'm sure we will. I'd say take care of yourself, Serenity…but you already seem quite capable of doing that."

Serenity laughed as she straightened up. "There are some who would disagree." She ran a fevered hand through her hair, making the blue arrow on her forehead much more prominent than it had been before. "I'll be heading out soon, too. There are still so many places to see before my two years are up." Before Toph would be joining her; the thought brightened her face considerably.

"Is something happening in two years?" Hakoda asked in confusion.

She laughed once more. "Oh, yes…many things." She winked, placing a finger to her lips before waving a few fingers to the men as she returned to the tent Katara had kindly offered to share with her.

It was nice, being in the South Pole. Serenity could easily say it was nothing like the North Pole; the South was much looser and more familiar while the North was more ruled by tradition. But Serenity had to leave. There was a rumor going around that Fire Lord Ozai had discovered of the existence of the last airbender. One of the many friends Serenity had made over the years had passed on the information to her and it was enough to make Serenity apprehensive.

If there was a taskforce created to hunt her down, then it would be safer for her to avoid contact with humans for awhile, hence why she was going to the Southern Air Temple next, the resting place of her great-grandfather. She suspected some peace of mind would do her good, and it was the closest temple to the South Pole, so that meant she didn't have to go as far.

The Southern Air Temple was the one she'd looked around in the least, mostly because it was the one that held the most bodies from the Air Nomad Genocide nearly one hundred years ago. Serenity was half-afraid that she would find her great-grandfather's bones among those of the fallen, and that was something she didn't want to see, not really.

Serenity inhaled slowly, closing her eyes. But fear was just another emotion, one that she could let go of. She exhaled and opened her eyes. Let the next phase of her adventure begin.

* * *

Serenity switched her glider to a staff once more midair, dropping to land lightly on her feet. Her hair rippled in the wind behind her as she moved forward, but she didn't go towards the temple first. She went instead to inspect the mountainside. Too often had Serenity forsaken the beauty of the land for the beauty of the temples, so this time she opted to walk over the rocks that held sparse bits of grass that had grown (Serenity was more surprised that it was still green, given how cold and covered with snow the temple was at this time of the year).

The rock crunched under her boots as she walked, dancing in the air. Serenity closed her eyes and inhaled the cool air, smiling as an old memory washed over her.

" _I think you and high altitudes are a very bad idea," Zuko told her seriously as she tugged him up the slope of the mountain._

" _This coming from the person who wakes up inhumanly early?" Serenity retorted with an arched eyebrow._

" _It's not inhumanly early," Zuko said, his voice stout and his eyes narrowed._

" _Sure, it isn't," she laughed, giving him a small jab in the side that earned her a muffled complaint. "Come on, Zuko! Climbing a mountain never hurt anyone!"_

"Climbing a mountain never hurt anyone," Serenity laughed quietly to herself, repeating her words from so long ago. She had never really minded the high altitude, and even when Zuko had complained, he hadn't really either.

A soft purring noise drew her attention downwards. Her eyes widened in surprise and then a grin spread across her face in excitement as she knelt down to the creature's level.

"Hello there, little guy," she said kindly, stretching out a tentative hand. "What're you doing out here?"

She'd never seen anything like it before, except in books. It was a winged lemur with large pale green eyes and even bigger white ears that were standing up straight as it cocked its head slightly to the side, examining her intently.

"It's alright," Serenity promised, holding her palms open, "I won't do anything, I promise."

He made the strange purring noise once more, taking a few cautious steps forward and towards her fingers, touching hers with a few probing paw-like fingers of his own. Then he leaned his face down against her hand and she scratched gently at his head.

"You're such a sweet little guy, aren't you?" she cooed softly to the lemur, laughing as he scampered up her arm to rest on her shoulders, his brown and white tail flicking forward and backward in the air. Then he leaned his head forward so his green eyes could peer into hers. "Do you have a name?"

He chirped a few noises to her that sounded strangely like "Mo-mo."

"Momo? Is that your name?" she asked.

The lemur nodded his head feverishly and proudly, making Serenity smile once more.

Momo returned to the ground, gesturing for her to follow.

"You have something to show me?" Serenity asked, now a bit bemused by his behavior. Momo nodded again. Confusion colored her face as the winged lemur leapt to the air, soaring down the mountain towards a large crevice, into which he vanished.

"Momo?" Serenity called, her voice echoing in the silence. The wide crack held nothing but darkness and right about now Serenity wished she had Zuko's gift for creating light. He could hold a flame in his palm as a source of light; Serenity could only blow it out. She sighed to herself before steeling herself and leaping through the crack.

The ground was closer than she had thought and she collided rather painfully with it, knocking her ankles out from under her and sending her sprawling.

Serenity grunted a complaint into the ground as she pushed herself upright, her front bruised. "Momo, what—?"

And then the words quite left her as she stared at the thing Momo had wanted her to see. "Oh, my  _spirits!"_

It was a sky bison! As in the mounts of airbenders more than one hundred years ago! Serenity had thought they were extinct, but here one was, one baby. Well, baby might not be entirely accurate. It was about the size of her torso with short horns and scraggly long white hair that nearly obscured its big brown eyes.

It made a low noise of surprise once it saw her, but it didn't recoil, instead, it moved towards her with an air of curiosity. It could smell the air that swirled around her and in her blood.

Serenity knelt, holding out an apple that she had kept in her bag as an offering to the small sky bison. Eagerly, the bison took it in its mouth, barely chewing it before swallowing it whole.

Serenity laughed as she placed a hand over the arrow on the sky bison's head. "I guess you guys really do have five stomachs, huh?"

The bison grunted happily, its tongue lolling out to lick her cheek making laughter burst from her lips once more. "Aw! You're so cute!" She glanced over the sky bison's anatomy for a brief moment, her eyes widening in surprise. "And you're a girl!"

The sky bison made a noise of agreement to her words as Momo flew forward, a few pieces of fruit in his hands which he handed over to the bison who ate them up greedily.

"I…guess you don't have a name, then?" Serenity asked the small female with a smile. "How about I come up with one for you? Something not very long or very girly?"

The bison seemed to be gazing at her rather expectantly.

"Hm…what about…Iggy?" Sky bison didn't really have long or complicated names to begin with, and Iggy sounded a bit unisex to Serenity.

A pink tongue lapped at her face in response, clearly liking the name.

* * *

It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but Serenity would come to regret leaving the mountain to meditate under the falls for the night.

When Serenity's eyes fluttered open, she was unsurprised to discover that she was in the Spirit World. The grass was warm under her feet and the mist was cool on her face.

"It's a human!" a child-like voice filled with wonder uttered from nearby. Grey eyes flickered to the spirit that had spoken, a small smile brushing across her lips. Like many of the spirits that Serenity had seen over the years, this spirit had no parallel in the physical world. It was a pale yellow, small enough to be held in both of her hands with small leaves for ears.

"Hello, what's your name?"

The spirit blushed golden at having her speak to it directly. "I'm Cal-Tahl!"

"Well, Cal-Tahl, I'm Serenity."

"Oh, I know!" the spirit said quickly. "Everyone knows about the girl who walks through the Spirit World!"

"Do they now?" Serenity asked in amusement. "I don't suppose you get a lot of human visitors, then?"

"Rarely…or at least, outside of the Avatar," Cal-Tahl admitted, "most of the humans that show up here disappear pretty fast."

"What d'you mean by that?" Serenity asked in confusion, a frown marring her lips. She had never thought it strange that there were practically no humans in the Spirit World when she visited; spirituality was something that many were skeptical about.

"Humans just vanish…I think the Dark Spirits get them…"

Serenity raised her head to squint into the sunlight, but it was not all as bright as it seemed. In the distance she could see a dark cloud brewing.

"You shouldn't go!" Cal-Tahl said nervously. "That's where the Dark Spirits are!"

"You could say I have a bit of a morbid curiosity," Serenity said, returning her gaze to the small spirit. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

But Cal-Tahl's leaf-ears drew back slightly as she turned away from him, loping gracefully towards the edge of the forest, jumping lightly over a few stray thick roots.

There was a light mist on the ground, but it hardly obscured the earth. Serenity lightly parted a few dangling branches of a willow tree with two fingers. The forest was, for the most part, silent. Some people might find that unnerving and try to scan the foliage for hidden enemies, but Serenity wasn't one of those people. She was well aware of the spirits that resided in the forest. Any sudden appearance of a spirit, while having the ability to startle her, would be unsurprising.

She shivered suddenly, recalling the spirit, Koh, the spirit also known as the Face-Stealer. He was the only spirit she had ever found herself truly afraid of, and she had barely escaped from his company with her face intact (something for which she was eternally grateful). Surely these Dark Spirits couldn't be worse than Koh?

Serenity swallowed, steeling herself but could not stop the traitorous flutter of her quickened pulse. There was only one way to find out, she supposed, glancing up through the tops of the trees. She was closing in on the cloud…or was it closing in on her?

Serenity leaned a hand against a nearby tree, blinking furiously to clear the fog from her mind and her eyes, but everything was becoming blurry the longer she didn't move. She collapsed to one knee, breathing in and out sharply, trying to force the air into her lungs, but it did no good. Her limbs were already numbing when she fell to her side, her world blackening.

"Throw her in the Fog of Lost Souls with the rest," a low and croaky voice uttered above her before her consciousness faded completely.

It came back surprisingly quickly in time for her to realize she was being thrown into a deep pit of fog. Serenity couldn't resist releasing a short yell of startled surprise and just a bit of fear. And for the second time that week, she collided painfully with the ground, laying there for a moment.

And then she pulled herself upright, twisting around in vain, but all that could be seen was fog as far as the eye could see, and she couldn't see very far.

"Hello?" she called tentatively. "Is anyone there?"

But there was no answer.

Serenity tried to take a few steps forward, but she was abruptly pulled back and a glance down told her why. Chains to her wrists kept her stationary, chains she was quite familiar with.

Her heart raced in her chest and she heard the hypnotic voice whispering in her ear, one that told her there was no war, one that told her she was to be the Earth King's secret weapon.

"No!" Serenity fell to her knees, gasping, her hands clenching into the earth. "It's a lie! This is…just a bad memory!"

Bad memory, yes, but Serenity had a few bad memories…the day her mother died…the day she found out her father and Lu Ten had been killed in battle. But in the underground prison of Ba Sing Se was the first place she had actually been afraid for her life, afraid of never seeing the light of day.

"I'm going to die down here…No!" Serenity struck the terrified thought from her mind, attempting to focus her mind, but even that was difficult.

It was harder to tell how much time had passed since she'd been dropped in the fog. It could have been anywhere from minutes to hours to even days.

Serenity took a calming breath. Her greatest fear was being held somewhere against her will, forced to do things she would never wish upon anyone else. Killing had seemed to be in the Dai Li's mind.

And she accepted that as her fear and stood, the chains melting from her arms and leaving her free and trembling, her head aching as much as her heart as she weaved her way through the cleared fog and back onto stable ground.

Morbid curiosity…she really had no idea how right she was.

Serenity closed her eyes once more and opened them in the physical world, and that was when fear and terror gripped her once more as she gazed in front of her through bars.

She had escaped one prison only to land in a second one.


	6. Escape to the Fire Nation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so we're all clear…I don't know wound healing length of time, so if the recovery time seems a bit short, let me know because I have honestly no idea and the internet was absolutely no help to me here

The floor moved under her, buffeted by the constant movement of the water that Serenity had grown used to when she was on her own, but while being on her own in that small Water Tribe boat on the sea had been comforting, this was very far from.

Serenity clutched at the bars, silent fear rolling over her in waves. The fog had been terrifying by itself, but this? This couldn't even  _compare._

 _Oh, Spirits, she was in deep trouble!_  She sucked in a cautious breath, keeping a wary eye on the two soldiers that guarded the door, barely seen through the rectangular slit in the door. The red of their uniforms was unmistakable. Serenity's heart contracted painfully in her chest and she raked a hand through her hair feverishly, sucking in her lower lip, her brain working like the cogs in a machine.

She was in a Fire Nation vessel, behind iron bars that would take a lot to break, and Serenity was almost certain that she was heading towards the Fire Nation once more.

Spirits, this was  _bad!_  If the Fire Nation got a hold of her…

Serenity's hand cupped over her eyes. Her only hope was to refine her air in such a way that it could slice through metal, but it was a very advanced technique that may have aided many masters during the genocide, but Serenity had never made the attempt.

She stood on her tip-toes peering out into the surf, searching for land in the distance, but she couldn't see anything. Despair flooded inside her, pooling in her stomach and making her want to bury her face in her hands and wail.

But that wouldn't be like Serenity at all.

She sat down on the damp bottom of her cage, her eyes flickering momentarily to the wall where her staff rested before they shut entirely. Serenity straightened her back and crossed her legs, her hands meeting in front of her stomach as she breathed in and out deeply.

Calm…she must remain calm…

Her eyes flashed open moments later when the door was slid open and a man stood framed in the doorway, illuminated by firelight. And Serenity remembered him.

She had been a child when they had met, no more than seven years of age and clinging to her father's leg, her eyes wide and curious, but her stature fearful. There had been something in his eyes that had unnerved her, and that something was still there.

"My, how the times have changed," he said, a smirk worming its way onto his lips. "I never thought I'd see the day when  _Lady_  Serenity would be in my cells."

Serenity barely blinked at the use of her title, her stare remained ahead and hard. "It won't be for long, Captain Zhao," she promised, glancing over his uniform. "If you think these bars can contain me, you are a fool."

"I think that if you could have left, you already would have,  _Milady_ ," Zhao said, jibing her with her title once more, but it lacked the effect he had been hoping for.

"Perhaps," Serenity said, shrugging her shoulders and appearing to be unconcerned. "But airbenders are surprisingly patient…a quality you are lacking in." An emotion flashed in her eyes that Captain Zhao couldn't quite decipher.

"You still won't be leaving this place…Fire Lord Ozai is eager to end the last of the airbenders with his own hand," Zhao retorted with a superior sneer, turning back to leave when Serenity released a sharp gust of wind from her mouth that knocked Zhao forward and out of the cell to collide harshly with the wall opposite. Serenity barely heard the noise of anger he made as her door slammed shut and was securely locked.

It was a small victory, but it was worth it to Serenity even as she fell into misery once more, raking a hurried hand through her hair, smoothing out the tangles as she breathed out shallowly.

Air wasn't the weakest element; there was no weak element, only weak benders. At nearly sixteen, Serenity had mastered almost sixty-seven tiers of airbending. She was a master slowly but surely making her way up to completing all of the tiers (something that very few had ever done before, but Serenity was determined to try). Air could be as sharp as any blade and stronger even than diamond.

All she had to do was refine it.

Serenity forced her anxiety away in favor of calm. She closed her eyes, keeping her breathing and heart rate steady as the air around her spun and shifted forming visible tendrils that twisted, picking up speed slowly but surely around her. Sharper…faster…

Serenity stood inside the miniature tornado, her eyes narrowed as she drew her arms back, crossing over her chest only to fling them forward. Her first strike was weaker than she'd intended, but stronger than she expected; it only dented the bars, not making enough noise to draw the attention of the guards outside, which is lucky for Serenity. She drew her arms back a second time…sharper…faster…stronger… and then she struck.

The metal groaned from the impact before being blown outward, leaving a sizeable hole for Serenity to duck through, grabbing up her staff a split second before the guards in their red armor appeared inside, shouting to someone in the hall of her escape. A swift slice with her staff sent them sprawling, their fire attacks overshooting her as she leapt over them, racing down the hallway.

Another fire blast came so close to her skin that she could feel the heat and smile the burn as it singed the tips of her fringe, and she dived between the man's legs, skidding on the floor as she flew up the stairs and out onto the deck.

Her heart battered against her ribcage –she was nearly to the edge–

A sudden piercing, stabbing pain jarred her and she barely had time to look down to see the dagger tip poking through her flesh, stabbing right through from her back before she fell overboard.

"Should we go in after her, sir?" a soldier asked Zhao.

"No," Zhao said dismissively as she was pulled away by the push and pull of the ocean, "she won't last long with a wound like that. She'll be dead before dawn. Inform the Fire Lord."

"Yes, sir."

But he was wrong, or perhaps he had miscalculated, but while the wound was serious, it was nowhere near as serious as he thought it to be. But it stung, Spirits, it  _stung!_  Serenity kept a tight grip on her staff as she was thrust towards a nearby shore by the waves. She raised her eyes to the sky, her mouth opening in surprise.

Two white dots were coming closer, becoming bigger and forming into a small winged lemur and an equally small sky bison.

She laughed out loud, something that caused a flicker of agony inside her, but she didn't care; she would not die today.

* * *

Serenity awoke the next morning on a soft bed, which left her quite confused, and she became even more confused when a middle-aged servant entered to provide her with suitable clothes, a warm bath, and an invitation to join the master for tea.

Who 'the master' was, Serenity had no idea, at least, not until she was seated before him.

"I don't usually approve of people entering into my house unannounced."

"You have my humblest apologies," Serenity said smoothly, fingering her throat for where her lotus tile had been tied only to find her neck void of any necklace.

"Looking for this?" A dark-skinned hand held out the tile bound to a leather strap and she took it gratefully.

"Thank you…I was supposed to show it to you," she admitted, "I understand you knew my father, General Hoshi, well?"

His dark eyes widened slightly in surprise, and then dawning realization overtook his expression. "You have inherited much from your mother."

"Thank you," Serenity said shortly, her smile stiff, "Master Piandao." She did look much more like her mother than her father, after all.

She had heard tales about the great swordsmaster. His skills were in high renown, especially in the Fire Nation. Serenity knew he had once taught Zuko in the art of using dao blades.

Master Piandao was older with only a few wrinkles adorning his face and his hair was still dark, so he couldn't have been much older than maybe fifty…but that was just a guess.

"Your father once came here for instruction in the art of the sword," Piandao admitted, taking a long sip of his tea, taking note of her surprise.

"My father never used a sword," Serenity said, eyeing him strangely. "Are you sure he wasn't here for another reason?" She tapped a nail lightly against the tile making a small click.

"Perhaps," Piandao said simply, his eyes flickering downwards slightly to the tile before returning to her face. He could see much of his friend in his daughter, even if she took so much after her mother. There was a fierce flame inside her that reminded him so vividly of Hoshi. "I must admit I am curious, though," he said mildly, "how a young girl with a winged lemur and a sky bison happened upon my estate."

"Momo and Iggy—" Serenity glanced around herself looking for her furry companions. "Where are they?"

"Enjoying the fine weather outside," Piandao told her, "they are not in any danger."

"They are of endangered species, how do I know you didn't kill them?" Serenity asked suspiciously.

"The balcony is yours," Piandao invited with a smile, gesturing towards the balcony in question. "Believe me, I have no interest in slaughtering innocent animals."

Serenity pulled herself to her feet, her stomach burning from the movement, the wound still not healed. Her steps were heavier than usual, weighed down by the low throbbing pain in her abdomen and back, but she made it to the balcony with little issue. The terrain beyond was a bright, lush green that stretched far with trees sprouting up her and there.

Iggy and Momo were gathered around an accumulation of fruits and vegetables, content with their food. Serenity breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Believe me now?"

Serenity's lips curled slightly in vague amusement. "Possibly…why did General Iroh ask that I come to see you?"

"It's often difficult to understand how Iroh thinks," Piandao mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully, "but a great master—"

"-must take learning from many teachers," Serenity intoned the all too familiar words. She had lost track of how many times Gyatso had told her that in the Spirit World, but she'd always thought he meant teachers of the same art, such as airbending, but Piandao was a swordsman. "But I'm not that big on using weapons," Serenity said, scrutinizing him apprehensively. "All I use is my staff and the air."

"Then perhaps the reason Iroh sent you is because he believes you are too dependent on your element."

Serenity blinked and stared at him, her mouth dropping open in surprise. She'd never considered the idea that she used her element too much, but know that she thought about it, she did use it rather a lot… "I never thought about it like that…" Deep contemplation overtook her features and Piandao was reminded of the look Hoshi wore as he thought out a strategy.

Momo dropped his moon-peach to scamper up to where she was, resting securely around her neck like a thick scarf, making soft purring noises. Serenity chuckled softly, only to give a small yelp as Iggy flew into her arms, sending her careening backwards.

"Ow-ow- _ow!_  Careful!" Serenity released a pained laugh, pressing a hand to her side where her pain was originating, ignoring how Piandao had chuckled at the animals' reactions to seeing her.

Serenity straightened with difficulty, Iggy resting on the ground like an oversized tiger-dillo baby. She bowed forward politely, clasping her hands together.

"Will you please train me?"

Piandao had trained only a select number of people, but it seemed that number would be going up by one.

"It would be my pleasure."

* * *

Serenity's face seemed to be in a permanent grimace as she held two short pieces of bamboo in her hands, feverishly blocking the strikes that Fat, Piandao's former apprentice turned butler, threw in her direction.

"Move your feet! Do not remain stationary!"

Serenity wanted to bury her face in her hands as she twisted and swerved, ducking under an onslaught only to have a harsh hit collide with her back. She gave a small noise of pain and surprise as she was thrown forward, colliding with the ground.

"Never show your back to your enemy, Serenity," Piandao called to her.

Serenity grunted into the ground. "Right." She pressed her palms onto the ground, flipping over and onto her feet, taking up her stance once more. This was not the first time Serenity had failed in training, though training had only just begun seeing as she had been unable to do many things for a week after she arrived, so as not to rip open the stitches that had sewn together her wound. However, violence wasn't something Serenity was particularly good at, and she had a nasty habit of dancing around her opponents rather than facing them head-on (but she was quite capable of doing that as well). Hence why this kind of training was trying on her nerves.

"Stop."

Serenity relaxed her grip on the bamboo as Fat was dismissed and Piandao descended to her.

"So, what else did I do wrong?" Serenity asked with a bit of a sigh.

"The problem is that you view swordsmanship to be stiff and wild," Piandao explained. "But you must let your weapon flow with your body. Your weapon is an extension of yourself."

Her lips pulled downwards in the corners. "But the way I fight is to evade—"

"It is not."

"Huh?" Serenity asked dumbly, surprised by his interruption.

"Your movements are light," he told her, "precise, swift, and graceful. Your only mistake was viewing your weapons as hindrances. Try again with how you normally move."

This time it was he that took the long stick of bamboo, holding it offensively in front of her. Serenity sighed, breathing in deeply through her nose. She exhaled, and then she moved.

Her bamboo collided with his, a precise hit. His twisted, trying to disarm her, but she countered swiftly, moving forward lightly on her feet.

"Good movement!"

She ducked and twirled, locking both of her bamboo sticks around his, making it very difficult for him to move it.

"Very good," Piandao told her in approval, "use your weapons to your advantage."

Serenity wasn't sure if she should feel pleased that he had praised her, or relieves that he wasn't going to yank his bamboo stick out from between hers and send her toppling to the ground.

"Onto the next exercise."

"Eh?" Serenity balked slightly at his words, reeling back and goggling at him as he placed a hand to the small of her back, prodding her forward. When she saw the five targets positioned at varying distances away, she grimaced.

"You just love putting me out of my comfort zone, don't you?" she asked dryly, examining the small daggers on the table nearby. Throwing daggers, judging by how thin they were and how light they appeared to be. Serenity was reminded of Mai, who had always seemed to have a dagger within reach, even at ten years old. It was one of the reasons why she hadn't needed many guards as a child.

Piandao laughed. "I suspect you'll be better at this than you were with your previous exercise."

"You're just saying that because it involves throwing something through the air," Serenity said, crossing her arms and scowling at him. "I'm really bad at violence, I'm sure that's really obvious."

"It's not that you're bad at violence, it's that you aren't trying at self-defense," Piandao disagreed. "The way of the sword is not simply used to cut down your foes—"

"Could've fooled me," Serenity muttered under her breath.

"It is used to protect the wielder from harm," Piandao continued, acting as though he hadn't heard her. "Pick up a blade and throw it at a target."

Serenity eyed the small daggers apprehensively. All pointy things were something she didn't really like to handle on principle. Serenity was a rather peaceful person who if given the choice would choose words over action (though she was capable of action just as well). Serenity sighed. But Piandao had been right when he said she was far too reliant on her element, besides, small daggers could be used to incapacitate if the need ever arose.

She hefted one blade with deft fingers, feeling its weight in her hand with a small expression of surprise causing her lips to part slightly; it was much lighter than she had been expecting. Though, she suspected it had to be, given that it was going to be thrown through the air. Serenity altered her hold on it so that it wasn't laying over her palm and drew her hand back, launching the dagger through the air and to lodge into the closest target, the knife landing in the second ring from the outermost one.

"I'd say pretty good for someone who's never thrown a knife before in their life," Piandao said, narrowing his eyes to where she had thrown her first dagger. "However, I would have aimed for the target directly in front of you."

Serenity's face flooded with crimson as she realized she'd hit the target one over from the one she'd been aiming at. "Oops."

"You don't want to have to lean on your bending for this," Piandao warned, "use your wrist more and your arm less."

"Yes, Master," Serenity intoned, beginning once more, expelling a short breath that ruffled the long hair that fell over her forehead.

* * *

Weeks passed faster than Serenity would've thought, but Piandao kept her very busy with the promise of making her into one of the finest sai-wielders in the world (granted, there weren't many of those so Serenity didn't have much competition). The blades were long, though still much shorter than a sword, despite being as sharp, and Serenity had to admit she was quite proud of them, seeing as she was the one who forged them.

Serenity had enjoyed the training as well as the break from her airbending, but she was eager to get back to her roaming…that and being at Piandao's estate was making Momo and Iggy very fat.

She had tied a small scarf over her head, hiding the blue arrow from view as she and the winged lemur and the sky bison took a short rest away from road, making sure they were not visible to passersby (she was, after all, in the Fire Nation and if they found out she was still alive, it wouldn't be good). Serenity held out an apple to Momo who took it eagerly while she tossed a few peaches to Iggy who caught them all easily in her tongue, barely chewing them all before she swallowed.

"Guess it's just us three for awhile," Serenity mused to her animal companions.

Iggy grunted, her wide tail lifting slightly before colliding with the ground as Momo purred.

"Toph'll join us eventually, so that'll be fun," Serenity promised with a small laugh, peeling an orange in her hands, "she keeps things interesting."

Serenity dropped a hand to pat Iggy's fur gently as the bison leaned against her side.

"We'll only rest for a short bit," she told the pair, "then we'll have to get moving again. We shouldn't risk flying until we're at the edge of the Earth Kingdom…then we'll have to fly to the Southern Air Temple…" Serenity fiddled with the hilt of one of her sias, chagrin on her face. "…because that's where we left the boat and all my supplies."

Momo made a chattering noise behind his apple that Serenity could only assume was laughter.

"Oh, hush, you!" she admonished, returning her sai to its holster to scowl lightly at the winged lemur. "I know it was my fault for deciding to meditate down from the temple, but still!"

Momo made the snickering noise again and Iggy made a similar grunt.

"I need to start talking to humans more," Serenity said with a sigh, rolling her eyes up to the sky, her thoughts drifting for a few brief moments before she forced her mind to clear.

"Ah, well," she murmured, "only one way to reach the edge of the Earth Kingdom, isn't there? Walking."

She placed Iggy securely in a bag (something the sky bison greatly disliked, but she would draw far too much attention to herself as the last of her kind, so it could hardly be helped) before tying it over her shoulders, upon which Momo easily rested on as his perch.

"Come on, it's only a few days journey," she consoled them, laughing at the sounds she received in return.

And while she returned to her roaming of the world, an exiled prince stood on the deck of his ship, his face set in a harsh line.

He had received word that the last of the airbenders had been apprehended and killed by Captain Zhao. Serenity's face filled with surprise swam before his eyes, the very expression she had worn when their paths crossed at the Western Air Temple. A deep and dark hatred unfurled inside him as he clenched his hands into tight fists. The idea that someone had snuffed out Serenity's life like she was a worthless enemy to the Fire Nation made him sick to his stomach.

Serenity who had always been so full of life, Serenity who could dance circles around practiced warriors, Serenity who could smile so brightly that her eyes would turn silver.

His heart burned uncomfortably in his chest, the image of her smile forever ingrained in his memory.

" _Fire still needs air to burn,"_  he remembered her saying so long ago, but he still didn't know what meant by that other than the reference to the two elements that they could bend. But, he supposed morosely, he was never going to find out. All of Serenity's secrets died with her.

Still, it was a bit odd that they'd never recovered a body, and a sliver of hope flickered inside him like a candle just about to be blown out.


	7. Complicated

If there were two things Serenity had learned about being in the Spirit World, it was that time moved very slowly and that you always found something you weren't looking for.

That was how Serenity happened upon Cal-Tahl, the small pale-yellow spirit that she had met before being thrown in the Fog of Lost Souls (something she never again wanted to experience). He was very pleased that she hadn't lost her mind to the Fog.

"Gee, thanks, Cal-Tahl," Serenity said dryly, the spirit balancing on her shoulder with difficulty. "You really know how to make a girl feel loved."

The spirit tittered with laughter, bouncing on her shoulder as they passed over a jagged mountain top that was warm under her boots and rough in texture so that Serenity never stepped on a completely flat bit of rock (also, nearly falling over the edge a few times). Serenity had never been in this part of the Spirit World before, which was strange since she'd been there so many times over the years.

"Well, most humans never come out of the Fog of Lost Souls," Cal-Tahl admitted, sounding a bit sheepish as his body bobbed forward (he didn't really have a head…everything seemed to be connected to his body). "How'd you get out?"

Serenity closed her eyes briefly, remembering the feel of the shackles on her wrists, wrenching her to the ground, and keeping her there. She remembered the taunting voice in her ear.

"Sheer willpower," Serenity said, rolling her eyes slightly.

"No, really, please?" the spirit was begging her now.

A light-hearted laugh escaped her. "I'm sure you'll find out eventually."

Cal-Tahl pouted on her shoulder, almost falling off due to the excessiveness of his pout. "C'mon, please?"

"I'm not telling," Serenity said, her amusement showing in her voice as they finally reached the bottom after what felt like a surprisingly short trek. The grass was softer and spread as far as she could see, encompassing several hills and there giant stalks that held even bigger leaves, like a tree in the physical world, only this would be more likely to protect you from the rain than the trees would.

"The Kai-Mon Lands," Cal-Tahl presented, his young voice sounding a little strange as he pronounced the name with clarity, "the best in all of Spirit World."

"Wow…" Serenity's eyes widened in complete and utter awe. "I don't think I've ever seen anything quite as beautiful…not even in the physical world."

"What's the physical world like?" Cal-Tahl asked inquisitively, hopping down from her shoulder as she bent to sit in the grass, her hands gently probing into the earth as she watched dragon-bird spirits flying by, their wings golden against the blue of the sky.

"Its…complicated, and very different from the Spirit World," Serenity decided at a long moment.

"Really?" Cal-Tahl said in surprise. "It's not peaceful?"

"Well…" Serenity scratched her cheek a bit awkwardly. "The world is kind of at war, the Fire Nation is winning."

"Isn't that where you came from, though?" Cal-Tahl asked, his youth suddenly blaringly obvious. "Shouldn't you be happier that they're winning?"

"It's more complicated than that," Serenity sighed, her fingers pausing in the earth. "I'm an airbender; the Fire Nation killed every member of the nation that I'm descended from…and then the Fire Lord tried to have me brought back so he could personally execute me…" She glanced to her spirit friend. "It's very complicated."

How many times could she use complicated as an excuse, she wondered. Zuko's face swam before her eyes and she bit her lip; that was complicated too.

"How old were you when you left?" Cal-Tahl asked in fascination. Serenity briefly wondered if she was somewhat of a novelty to him, a human that traveled constantly through the Spirit World, one who had survived the Fog of Lost Souls with her memory and mind intact. Serenity grimaced slightly. Yes, it would be safe to say that she was more than just a simple curiosity.

"Twelve."

"Whoa! That's young!"

"You're probably thousands of years old," Serenity responded in a deadpan, "so, of course, it sounds young to you."

"I'm only two hundred and twenty years old!" Cal-Tahl disagreed, bursting into giggles.

Serenity tried very hard not to roll her eyes at the spirit as his leaf-ears swayed in the wind.

"Was it hard?" Cal-Tahl asked, his small coal-black eyes peering up at her inquisitively. "Leaving your home?"

"It hadn't really been my home for awhile," Serenity said easily, waving to a few spirits as they flew by (they did a few loop-de-loops for her enjoyment). "My mother had been dead for months before I left." Serenity took a moment to blink furiously. "I left the day we received word that my betrothed and my father were killed."

"That's so sad!" Cal-Tahl said in a way that only a child could, his sympathy obvious but his comprehension much more difficult to ascertain.

Serenity's eyes softened, the color shimmering as they fell to a nearby stream. "Yes…it is." She shook her head, clearing the haze from her thoughts. "But it was still hard to leave…I mean, it was where I grew up."

She smiled at the small spirit who was still watching her in fascination. "I could certainly say that I've lived a very interesting life…I'm never bored."

And she wasn't wrong. If traveling the world had taught her one thing, it was that everyone was very different and so was every place. Everyone had different traditions and different ways of doing things, so Serenity always had to be mindful of that when she traveled (which also made for quite a learning experience, which was one of the things Serenity had been after in the first place).

And traveling through the Spirit World was much like traveling in the physical world; there were some places she didn't go so as not to irritate a few spirits that appreciated her privacy.

It was peaceful to Serenity, but she knew it wouldn't last.

* * *

Serenity had been in several rather awkward situations before –none of which she would disclose– but this had to top it.

She, Momo, and Iggy had paused in their traveling (as they'd been traveling nonstop for almost two weeks and they all deserved some rest), coming to stop at a small practically secluded lake that offered a place for her to bathe, and that was something Serenity looked forward to.

Momo and Iggy lounged on the sound, throwing animalistic noises back and forth that sounded a little like taunting, but Serenity didn't stay to find out, quickly divesting herself of her clothes and leaping into the water with eagerness. She dived straight down, holding her breath, her fingers running through her hair, helping to clear the grime that had accumulated over time.

But Serenity also wasn't stupid; bathing naked in sunlight was an especially bad pastime for females traveling alone, as such, Serenity always protected her modesty, which was a bit lucky, because someone had wandered into her little encampment, an old friend with an angry scar to match his scowl.

As it were, Zuko, in an episode of anger had parted from his ship's company, as they were currently portside. His men had gone out to have a night of drinks, something his uncle had insisted that he take part in, but no drink would be able to quench the burning flame in his stomach that only grew hotter when he imagined Serenity's body broken and her eyes staring sightlessly.

Zuko gritted his teeth, his glare deepening as he thrust his way through the woods, hitting a branch so hard that it was flung back against his face, only serving to anger him more as he scowled through the branches, but his attention was captured almost instantly by something that lay on the riverbank beyond.

Zuko had studied the airbenders for years, ever since he had been banished, and since he had discovered of Serenity's true lineage. So when he caught sight of a flying lemur and a sky bison, excitement flooded through his veins.

But there was no one else in sight and nothing but a small pile of clothes to indicate a person had even been there. Zuko leaned against the tree in case a person returned. Could it be the Avatar? Or…? He almost didn't want to believe it, because hoping that Serenity was alive would just set him up for failure.

And then someone with waterlogged hair broke through the surface, flipping their hair out of their eyes, and Zuko's eyes were stuck to the azure arrow tattooed to her forehead and his heart positively stopped.

There was only one other Airbender in existence aside from the Avatar, only one that was female…but that was impossible. Serenity had been killed, he'd seen the report, her wound had been extensive…yet no body had been found adrift in the ocean.

The girl he was surveying wrung out the water from her hair, though she still left a tangled mess before blinking open a pair of calm grey orbs. Zuko's breath caught in his throat. No…that wasn't possible!

"I can feel you, you know," Serenity commented in that mild and calm voice of hers, her lips curling upwards slightly as her eyes roved over to the foliage he had ducked behind. "You still feel like fire."

Feel like fire? How could she have known that from the distance between them?

"Please, Zuko," Serenity continued, her voice just a touch dry, "don't insult me."

So grudgingly, the exiled prince of the Fire Nation stepped out and into the bright sunlight. Serenity bit the inside of her mouth slightly, restraining from throwing her arms over herself. Never had she been quite so exposed before him.

She gave a polite cough, noticing his eyes wandering over her in his shock. "Um…could you throw me my clothes?"

Zuko's face burned a bright red, or, at least the part of it that didn't have the scar, and he averted his eyes quickly to snatch up the pile of clothes that lay beside the winged lemur that was eyeing him distrustfully and throw them at her face.

Serenity caught them in the air easily and she turned away to dress as Zuko did the same, too embarrassed to do otherwise.

It was only when she was comfortably dressed with patches of wet sinking through the fabric that she spoke, striding out of the water fast enough that it sloshed around her feet. "I guess you're here because you heard about Iggy?"

"Iggy?" the word –it must have been a name, Zuko supposed– fell off Zuko's tongue strangely and he lifted his eyes to look at her, but her focus was on the small sky bison that was basking in the sun with a wide yawn that showed all its teeth (though it wasn't nearly as impressive as it sounded, sky bison were herbivores, after all).

Serenity knelt to pat at the fur hanging loose on its head. "How many times do I have to tell you that what you seek is not always what you get," she said with a sigh as the winged lemur scampered up her arm to rest on her shoulders, canting its head slightly in confusion.

Zuko's eyes narrowed at her briefly and she spared him a smile that matched her name to a tee. And then his eyes fell to her bag lying not too far away, patterned with the swirling symbols of air inside which he could make out a pair of weapons.

"Sais? I would've thought weapons of any kind would be too violent for you," he commented in a rather mild voice.

"You would think so, wouldn't you?" Serenity asked in a clearly vexed voice and Zuko suppressed a snort at how similar she sounded to when she was a child, aggravation flashing in her eyes as she puffed out her cheeks.

The slight frown that was thrown in his direction told him that knew of what he was trying hard not to laugh at.

* * *

A good thing about having a firebender around was that Serenity didn't have to try so hard with her spark rocks.

The bad thing about having him around meant that Serenity was subjected to a number of awkward silences and deep scowls.

"So…" Serenity said, scratching her cheek sheepishly, "how's your uncle?"

"He's fine."

A frown turned Serenity's lips downwards as she roasted her potato on one of her sais (probably not completely sanitary, but it wasn't like she'd used them to slice anyone up recently, or at all) over the fire. Zuko was being irritatingly blunt.

"Won't your crew miss you?" she asked him after another moment.

"Doubtful," he retorted and Serenity's eye twitched just slightly as she dug through her bag for a few spare berries to be shared between her two animal companions.

"You know, I really hate when you talk like that," she told him conversationally. "It makes you sound like your father."

He glared at her.

"Your father is not a good man, Zuko," she responded in kind, "I would have thought that was obvious when he sent you on this fool's crusade." She was goading him, trying to get a reaction out of him that held more emotion than it did blankness, and she was rewarded swiftly for her efforts by a growing tick mark on his forehead and a sudden explosion.

"You don't know my father!" Zuko snarled, actually standing up, his golden eyes flashing, reflecting the fire flickering between them.

Serenity was a contrast, her eyes silver and daring as she looked up at him, unfazed by his temper as the wind rustled past, lifting her hair just slightly so that a sliver of blue could be seen and then she calmly took a bite of her cooling potato. "Neither do you," she reminded him. "My father would never have sunk so low to punish a child for speaking out of turn by burning part of his face off." She arched an eyebrow. "And you say you do not understand why I left."

She took a second bite while Zuko gazed at her flabbergasted. Serenity had a curious talent at rendering him speechless from her words, something she often did to show she understood things better than he did.

He couldn't count how many times he had been left mouthing wordlessly as his cheeks flooded with color from his embarrassment.

"You know…you look really cute when you're surprised."

This time a bright red flush spread across his cheeks. "W-What?" he demanded. "I am  _not—!"_

"Oh,  _of course not_ ," Serenity consoled him in a manner that was nearly mocking, "and of course I wouldn't  _dare_  to slight the honor of a prince."

Zuko couldn't see her eyes, but he was almost completely certain that they were twinkling with amusement.

He sat down suddenly and Serenity blinked.

His hands curled into fists on his lap and he did not speak, leaving Serenity quite at a loss of what to say.

"I heard that you were captured by Captain Zhao," he said finally, and the realization dawned on her, "and that you were killed when you escaped."

His tone was very somber and Serenity's eyebrows raised slightly, surprised at how upset he seemed to have been by the news.

"Yes, well," she said rather lamely, "reports can be misleading." She brushed a hand against the fur of Iggy's head as the sky bison lay its head on her leg where it was crossed under her. "Besides," she added as almost an afterthought, "when did I ever die easy?"

"It would be hard to die easy if you never died at all," Zuko felt the need to point out, but he held his tongue before he could get the words out.

Serenity stood, moving to collect her small assortment of things that had somehow become slightly skewed in the sand by Zuko's sudden appearance.

"What are you doing?" Zuko asked suspiciously.

"Clearing up," Serenity said simply, "I've been here too long and it's too close to the Fire Nation for my liking. I could still be recognized, so I'm going back home."

"And where's home?" Zuko asked her.

She gave him a bright smile in return. "Wherever I wish it to be…would you give your uncle a message from me?"

Momo was trying to help stuff the remnants of their food away, but he was getting distracted and trying to eat it all instead, resulting in Iggy head butting him away, earning the sky bison a small squawk of indignation.

"What kind of message?" Zuko asked with a sigh.

"Tell him…the lotus blooms twice."

Zuko gave her a strange look in return that plainly said he didn't understand the significance of the phrase, but that was fine by Serenity, after all, she hadn't been anticipating on him understanding it.

"Just give it to him, will you?" she laughed, cleaning off her sais in the river before returning them to her holsters which she then bound to her thighs.

The sais suited her, but…they ruined her pacifist image, because for as long as he could remember, she shied away from weapons and fire (which practically counted as weapon by itself).

Serenity had grown up into a confident young woman who was prepared for anything, including an attack, but he hadn't…and he felt like he was falling further and further behind her.

"Don't look so worried, Zuko." Her laughter drew his eyes and he stood, pleased to see that his height was greater than hers, because that hadn't been the case for awhile. "We'll meet again, I'm sure of it."

And then she did something that both stunned him and warmed him from his ears to his toes.

She stood on her tip-toes and pressed a short kiss to his burned cheek, not flinching away from the feel of his marred flesh.

Zuko found himself quite frozen, his mind blank.

* * *

Even by the time Serenity arrived in the North Pole she was still questioning what had possessed her to act quite so impulsively as to kiss Zuko's cheek, though, she thought to herself, he did seem to enjoy it.

Still, they were worlds apart. He was a firebender, she was an airbender. He was loyal to the Fire Nation despite his banishment, and she was loyal to the practices of the Air Nomads despite being the last of her kind (discounting the elusive Avatar who had yet to make an appearance).

Talk about forbidden romance.

Serenity gave a mournful sigh and Momo purred to her in a reassuring manner as best as he could from where he was huddled under her shirt to insulate himself from the cold, a problem Iggy didn't really have, having a thick hide of fur even despite her young age.

Serenity took up her staff, aiming at a very specific spot before slashing out a quick slice of air.

She had had to make a short detour to the Southern Air Temple to retrieve all of her supplies that she had left behind when she had been captured by Captain Zhao, including the Water Tribe bout that was back in her possession once more.

The air blast went on for a short while until it collided with something, causing Serenity to hear a very slight ringing of a bell in the distance.

This was a system she had designed with Chief Arnook to signal her arrival, in the event that she was sighted without being accompanied by the ringing of the bell, then something would be known to be amiss.

Two boats approached her and she had to admit hers was a great deal smaller when it was compared to theirs, but that was to be expected. She was greeted by a few jaunty waves and roguish winks from the younger waterbenders, and polite (and for some, stiff) bows by the older ones as she was escorted inside.

She would never quite get used to how the snow and ice compacted wall could be broken away so easily and put back in place just as easily by the waterbenders, their skills were quite superb…however…

Serenity hid her smile. Privately, she thought a few well placed air slashes could take down the outer wall…but that was just her opinion.

When she stepped out of the boat and onto snow, assisted by a young man with a superior smirk that irked her in so many ways in such a manner that she could not publicly refuse, she was accosted by a small number of children garbed in thick parkas with the same darker skin, flashing blue eyes, and dark hair ranging from soft brown to midnight black.

"Lady Serenity!"

Serenity released a small grunt as no less than four children flew at her, nearly knocking her either back into her boat or straight into the water had it not been for Serenity's supreme balance and control over air.

"Lady Serenity, you're back!" a girl cried. "I've been learning healing from Master Yugoda since you left, I've gotten really good!"

"So what?" a boy sniped at her. "I've been training with Master Pakku and I might be advancing by spring!"

The flurry of voices eased Serenity's mind. It was a well known fact that Serenity liked children very much, despite not wanting any for some times yet, and she always took the time to speak with them, as she could relate to them, being only a few years older than them herself.

"It all sounds very impressive," Serenity promised, kneeling down so that she was more level with them, ignoring the wetness that was seeping through her pants where she had knelt down. "I am sure one day you shall all be great masters, far greater than Masters Yugoda and Pakku."

The children laughed and delighted in her praise, she was, after all, a master herself, albeit of an element no other human possessed.

"Lady Serenity?" it was a small girl who spoke this time, smaller and younger than the first, with wide and innocent eyes. "Do you think there will be more airbenders one day?"

The question stalled Serenity briefly and she recalled young Katara from the South Pole asking her if she ever wanted to have children.

"Perhaps one day," Serenity acquiesced, her thoughts drifting towards Zuko briefly before she quickly pushed the thought away, the flush of her cheeks easily being mistaken as coming from the cold rather than brought on by thoughts towards a certain firebender. "But I fear you are stuck with me as the last airbender for the time being." She winked and the girl giggled.

"Lady Airbender, welcome once again."

The children scampered away quickly as Chief Arnook made his appearance, and Serenity stood slowly, giving him a short bow as she rose with a smile, grasping his arm as the men typically did (and it would be insulting to Serenity not to do so as her master status gave her similar rights to a man of the Northern Water Tribe) before each moved forward to kiss one of the other's cheek politely.

"It is always good to be among friends," Serenity said with a smile.


	8. Through Water, Into Earth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the continued support! Since Viva my Vida asked: Currently this story is pre-Avatar, and Toph will have been traveling with Serenity a few months before their paths cross with Aang. I had originally planned on them meeting up quite early on, but I changed my mind the more I thought about it…
> 
> To the guest: Expecting me to jump right into the romance is incredibly ridiculous as Zuko is fighting for the Fire Nation, the very region that decimated Serenity's people as well as wanted to kill her. Though the two feel deeply for each other, expecting them to start kissing all the time just won't occur…this is what we like to call slow buildup.
> 
> So, it's been a really long time since I updated…oops! That's entirely my fault, I will admit. I promise this story has not been abandoned, I have far too many ideas concerning its plot for it to be so.
> 
> And it will be awhile yet before Ren and Toph cross paths with the GAang, which will occur in Book Two.

The cold air swirled around Serenity and Yue as they walked side by side through the Northern Water Tribe. Yue had a tendency to drift to Serenity when she was visiting; Yue was typically the one Serenity drilled on customs and traditions of the Water Tribe when her father was busy.

"Traveling through every nation of this world must be fascinating," Yue said as they walked across the bridge.

"There's always something new to learn, at least," Serenity said with a smile, skipping around a few Water Tribe children that rushed past, their laughter echoing around them off of the icy structures, making it seem as though they were several places at once.

"If only I could see it too," Yue uttered wistfully, glancing out to the endless surf as if searching for a spot of land too distant to be seen.

"Maybe one day you will," Serenity said with a smile, patting her bulkily-clothed arm kindly.

"Maybe," Yue agreed, her smile faltering, "there had been rumors that the Fire Nation had caught and killed a rogue airbender…we feared the worst had happened."

A grimace marred Serenity's lips as she recalled the events. She had hoped that the knowledge of her supposed death hadn't spread throughout the four nations, but it seemed that that hope had been in vain. After all, if the knowledge of her 'death' had spread from the Fire Nation to the Water Tribe, there wasn't much hope.

"Well…" Serenity coughed uncomfortably. "They certainly did catch me, but they only think they killed me, which works a bit in my favor…you wouldn't believe what you can get done when you're dead."

Yue's pale eyebrows rose high on her forehead at those words, but Serenity didn't seem to notice, watching as Momo scampered towards where several children were playing a game with frozen berries.

She smiled as the children shrieked at the flying lemur leaping forward to grab one and bite into it only to discover it was frozen and drop it in disappointment.

Yue watched her eyes grow distant and soften. "What is it?" she asked gently, but it still jarred the airbender slightly and the brunette very nearly jumped.

"It's nothing," Serenity said with a sigh, "this just isn't how I expected my life to be."

"How did you expect it to be?" Yue inquired curiously.

"Did you know I was betrothed to the grandson of Fire Lord Azulon when I was a child?" Serenity asked instead and Yue couldn't help how he eyes widened at that admission. Of course, she was one of the few that was aware of into what nation the 'Lady Airbender' had been born, as her father had mentioned it to her in passing, but the thought that the only airbender left in the world had once been betrothed to marry into the royal house of the Fire Nation was stunning to say the least.

"No," Yue said finally, "I did not. What was your betrothed like?"

"Unfailingly kind," Serenity said with a fond yet sad smile, "he always made time for me…to make sure I didn't believe any of the rumors passed from other noble girls who'd wished to be his betrothed."

"What happened to him?" Yue asked gently after a certain length of silence had passed.

"He was killed when the Fire Nation tried to take Ba Sing Se," she said with a solemn note in her voice.

Yue knew a thing or two concerning love matches, but her betrothal to Hahn was not one that she would have agreed with if given a choice, but since it was the custom of her people, she conceded. However, the relationship Serenity was describing with her former betrothed seemed to be a good one to have, equality and balance and both sides.

"I'm sorry," Yue said, "he sounded like a good man."

"He was," Serenity agreed, twirling a bit of wind around her fingers, so much so that it made the air pick up around them, but she didn't seem to notice. "One of the best."

But Lu Ten had always known that Serenity's feelings for him were nothing more than the kind that family and friends held for one another. Serenity didn't know if he felt romantically for her and she had never felt the need to ask.

She would have been content with the match, but not happy, and she was certain that he had known that from the start.

Serenity had never been one to actively seek out his company, but she had for Zuko.

She raised and arm to smooth over the burn on her arm, her thoughts miles away before she forced them back.

"Tell me about the history concerning this pagoda," Serenity invited of the princess who had fallen silent and a moment later speech flowed and Serenity listened diligently.

* * *

Serenity had walked by the small circular wooden door in the side of one of the outer pagodas, and it might have been easily ignored by others, but not Serenity.

Serenity noticed the difference when she walked by.

It was like breathing the air from the Kai-Mon Lands in the Spirit World, fresh and smelling like trees and flowers, purer than anything Serenity had ever smelled.

"What's this?" she asked Yue when she had the chance, her eyes not even leaving the wooden door, raising a hand to trace across its surface. It seemed to almost sing to her, calling her to approach, to enter.

Serenity wasn't certain she'd ever felt anything like it before.

"Oh, that's very special," Yue said with a smile. "It leads to the most spiritual place in the North Pole…we call it the Spirit Oasis."

The airbender rested her palm flat against the wood before lifting her eyes to look to Yue. "Am I allowed to go in?" she asked.

Her time in the Northern Water Tribe was nearly up, though she didn't really have a schedule to follow…it was more of she was trying to keep to the time frame that she'd promised Toph she'd return. And that time was nearly done. Very soon now Serenity would be gaining a companion, unless Toph had changed her mind, though she very much doubted that.

"Of course," Yue said, grasping the handle and pulling the door open to permit her friend inside. "I feel you're the person who could appreciate it the most."

Serenity smiled at the veiled compliment before stepping inside gazing around in wonder.

She had never seen such a place in the Spirit World or in the Mortal World…it was like a bridge between the two, like both and at the same time, unlike both.

What lay beyond was a deep cavern, but even that could not hide the spiritual presence that called to Serenity.

A thin walkway on one side was the only thing that kept Serenity from sloshing through the water to get to the small garden resting on an island.

"Oh, it's  _beautiful_ ," Serenity could barely breathe and Yue believed her.

How could she not? With the way her eyes glowed and her lips curled upwards into a smile…there was no hint of a lie, and Yue had not expected one.

Serenity was a highly spiritual being; it would have surprised her if she hadn't had the kind of reaction that she did.

"Would you like to go further in?" Yue asked, despite knowing the answer.

Serenity gave her a small laugh in return, moving forward along the walkway until she reached a wooden bridge, crossing it, her shoes making contact with grass. She knelt down to rake her fingers gently through the blades, wonderment still present on her face.

It had been awhile since Serenity had been in a warm environment such as the oasis, but warmth had never been an issue, not with her airbending abilities (she had long since learned the proper breathing techniques to keep herself warm without needing a lot of layers).

"I've never seen such a place," Serenity admitted, still marveling at what the Spirit Oasis was. "How can it be so warm?"

Serenity's delight in spiritual wonders and new knowledge was something Yue had grown accustomed to, and it never failed to set a smile on her face.

"The Spirit Oasis is the center of all spiritual energy in our land," Yue said simply. Not a lot of people knew about the Spirit Oasis, since it held two spirits, La and Tui, the Ocean Spirit and the Moon Spirit, and some might seek to harm them and in turn harm those of the Water Tribes, who gave thanks to the spirits for them teaching waterbending to them.

Serenity knelt down in the grass to look into the pond where La and Tui circled each other constantly, seemingly never-ending, but Yue knew better; sometimes the spirits circled, sometimes they swam aimlessly. They were the essence of the Ying-Yang symbol, which had been drawn from them eons previously; good and evil, dark and light…for one could not exist without the other.

Yue almost stopped Serenity when her fingers sank into the small pool, but Serenity wasn't the type to needlessly hurt creatures, let alone spirits, if it could be avoided. And she watched as the airbender simply let her fingers rest in the water, waiting patiently to see if one of the fish-spirits would approach.

For a moment, nothing happened, and then Tui edged forward, swishing its fins in the water as it came close to one of Serenity's fingers, before rubbing against it in a manner not unlike a cat.

If Yue had been checking herself, she would have realized that she was gaping at the exchange.

La swam closer with dark fins blurring in the water and the diamond of white scales on its head glinting from moonlight. The spirit seemed to size Serenity up briefly before nudging her hand with its head.

And then Serenity removed her hand from the water with a smile.

She had spent many hours in the presence of a plethora of spirits, large or small, powerful or not. Cal-Tahl had said she smelled less like a human and more like a spirit now, but not quite…like she was somewhere caught between the two.

And it was clear that the two fish now swimming in a circle before her were no mere fish, but powerful spirits, ones to be respected.

"Do you mind if I stay and meditate?" she asked Yue, having practically forgotten of her friend's presence.

"Not at all," the princess laughed. "I'll tell Father where you are."

Serenity might be a bit late for dinner, but how could she resist meditating in the presence of spirits such as the famous La and Tui who were said to have gone missing ages ago.

She closed her eyes and allowed the world to fall away with the only constant being the beating of her heart and the breaths leaving her lips.

* * *

Iggy had been gorging herself whilst Serenity had been running around the North Pole, searching for new things to learn of and Momo playing with children and looking for berries.

The sky bison groaned as Serenity blew the water out of her hair, raking her fingers through the brown locks and threading them into a plait.

"This is your fault," Serenity reminded her. "Just because someone gives you all these fruits to eat doesn't mean you _have_  to eat them."

Iggy merely groaned in reply, sprawling on the ground in a way that made her a bit of an obstacle to cross around, which, Serenity suspected, was the point.

"Don't be such a  _killjoy,"_  Serenity said, nudging Iggy with her foot as she packed up her bare necessities into her bag. "You and Momo have been living large since we got here, but now we're back to living off the land."

Momo, who had made a purring noise when she had mentioned living large, drooped his ears downwards at the thought, and it was enough to make Serenity laugh. It wasn't as though he was a stranger to living off the land, as he had done so long before Serenity had crossed his path, and even after.

Serenity's fingers played with the thick choker necklace bound tightly to her throat, the one from which her lotus tile hung.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd played an honest to good game of Pai Sho, though, she suspected the last time she had it had either been with Iroh, or with Master Piandao, given their ties to the same organization that she was now a part of.

Fingers fumbled with the holsters that bound her double sais to her legs, one to each, each to grab if the time ever arose for such an action. Most others' weapons were long since painted with blood, but not Serenity's. Serenity believed in pacifism more than violence, just as her mother had, and her father before her, back to her great-grandfather, Gyatso.

And there was nothing wrong with pacifism, as she had been assured by her parents countless times when she was younger. Anyone had a right to their own beliefs, but pacifism didn't really have a place in the world they were currently living in.

Serenity didn't doubt that there might one day come a time when she would be forced to do the unthinkable, whether to protect herself or others, and that was the thing that scared her.

She didn't believe in a world that believed that violence was the answer; maybe that was the reason she was so connected to the Spirit World, after all, the only strife there was the kind between ill neighbors.

"Let's go," Serenity murmured to her two animal companions and Momo was quick to scamper up her arms to rest around her shoulders while Iggy hoisted herself to her feet (the many of them that she had). "The Chief won't wait all day."

* * *

"As always," Chief Arnook said, bending his head forward in a bow, "it was an honor to have you with us."

Serenity bowed in return with a smile of her own. "Hopefully it won't be the last, Chief."

The sunlight was shining brightly down on them today, making the snow and ice difficult to look at, but none of the Northern Water Tribe members seemed bothered (though Serenity suspected they had long since been desensitized towards the bright sunlight). Serenity, however, couldn't stop the wince that formed on her face in an effort to decrease how much of her eyes the sun could hit.

A few of the children had showed up to wave goodbye, but it wasn't a formal affair, something that pleased Serenity to no end; she wasn't sure she could stand it if the whole village had been there.

She blinked when the chief handed her a bag that was bulging and heavy when he placed it in her arms. "What's this?" she asked in honest confusion.

"Food and money for your journey," he explained.

Serenity's shoulders sagged just slightly. "You know you don't have to do that," she said with a sigh. She could manage well enough without money; Serenity was rather good at picking out fruits and vegetables that weren't likely to kill you when she was on the road.

"It is a gift," Chief Arnook told her and she inclined her head in respect before kneeling to place it in her boat where Iggy and Momo were already resting, ready for the trip back to land.

When she stood, Chief Arnook had been replaced by his daughter. Yue was smiling sadly, looking as radiant as usual, though perhaps that had more to do with the life of the spirit Tui that still remained inside her, than her beauty.

"Take care of yourself, Serenity," Yue said, taking Serenity's hands in hers and wearing an imploring expression on her face. "And may the spirits guide your way."

"I will," Serenity promised before cheeking, "and they do." Her lips twisted upwards in one corner and she gave the princess a wink for good measure before hopping lightly into the boat she had been using to travel the ocean for years now.

She gave her friend one last wave before the waterbenders used their prowess with their element to send Serenity and her two animal companions through the canal and to the outer gate made of ice and snow.

And then they were in the free ocean and Serenity picked up her row and began rowing. It would have been faster if she was using her airbending, of course, but Serenity had been almost killed before for what she was, so it was far better to hide in the shadows than to be seen in the light.

"Next stop, Gaoling," Serenity told Momo and Iggy as they settled down for a rest even in the turbulent waters.

* * *

Toph may have been blind, but she saw the world so much more clearly than her parents could possible fathom.

She didn't understand colors, but she did understand feelings and emotions and even sometimes expressions.

Joy was golden and smiles were silver in her mind, even though she'd never seen a smile or anything that was gold or silver. But she'd once traced a smile's path on her mother's lips when she was younger. Serenity's smiles were softer and Toph could hear her heart flutter softly with the curve of her lips.

But Toph was caught somewhere between green and orange, envy and freedom.

She had just turned twelve, which meant that she'd reached the age that she and Serenity had agreed for her to return…for them to travel the world together.

Toph had been counting down the days since Serenity had left, and finally the day had arrived, but she had heard nothing from her friend as the sun rose into the sky and fell to permit the moon to take its place.

She should have been more regretful, she admitted to herself. Gaoling was her home, it was where her parents had raised her, but it was also where they had shut her away from the world. No one knew that the Beifongs even had a daughter, let alone one that was blind.

Toph Beifong was a nonentity; Toph Beifong didn't exist.

But the Blind Bandit did.

It was hard work, becoming a master of earthbending when she only had the chance to practice in the dead of night, leaving her parents to think that she was suffering from insomnia and trying to medicate her with herbs from a high-paying herbalist (their efforts failed and Toph killed the plant at her bedside by watering it with the sludge they gave her before they helped her to bed). And once she had become a master, she had felt the need to test her skills against the best the city of Gaoling had to offer.

Her opponents in Earth Rumble VI weren't much to speak of, but Toph had accumulated a small wealth from her consistent winning, something that bolstered her pride.

But all thoughts fled from her mind at the sound of someone cracking her window open and entering on light feet.

The way they moved was eerily familiar as Toph continued to feign sleep, listening to the feet that met the ground so quietly that they seemed to be moving on the air.

"Are you going to pretend to be asleep all day?" a voice hissed in the silence and Toph exhaled sharply before throwing off her blankets to grin widely at the speaker.

"Took you long enough, Ren," she said, pulling herself out of the bed, fully dressed in the green and tan uniform that she wore during her earthbending training and matches in Earth Rumble VI. Even though she had been half-expecting Serenity not to show up, she'd still dressed herself in the preparation for her impending arrival.

"Had a bit of difficulty with some pirates in the ocean," Serenity told, not missing a beat and if Toph was anyone else, she would have had to wonder if Serenity was telling the truth. But Toph knew better; she could always tell when her friend was lying.

"Sure, you were," Toph retorted dryly, before quieting at the sound of a guard passing her window (the amount of security her parents had was frankly ridiculous).

"Do they do that often?" Serenity whispered, moving to the side of the wall where she couldn't be seen by the guards outside.

"Seven minute intervals," Toph grunted as she pulled her bag from under the bed, hiking it onto her back with another groan, but it was an exaggerated movement.

"I take it that you're ready to go," Serenity noted with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Born ready," Toph smirked.

There was a moment of silence while Serenity gathered her thoughts, looking around the wide room that had clearly been decorated by someone other than the one that slept in its bed every night. It wasn't as large as Serenity's had been growing up, but it was a very close thing. And Serenity remembered the day she had left her home very clearly; she had seared it into her memory.

"I'm guessing you decided to not tell your parents?" she guessed.

Toph expelled a sharp sigh.

But Serenity wasn't accusing her, and that was probably the only thing that kept her from getting angry. Serenity knew what it was like to leave her whole life behind; she was the only one that could possibly understand.

"No," she said. "I didn't."

Serenity hummed and the sound came to Toph's ears like the flapping of wings of birds in flight.

"So, got everything you need? We might travel a bit into the morning…"

Toph's lips drew into a grin so wide that it threatened to split her face. "Think you can keep up, Ren?"

Serenity's heart fluttered and Toph could practically hear her smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made an error when I wrote about the Moon and Ocean sprits, who are said to be in a constant circular motion for all time, but it seemed to me that they might get a bit bored of that sometimes, so I just wrote that they swim aimlessly sometimes (but they do spend most of their time circling each other)
> 
> So, Toph and Ren are now traveling together, that'll be fun to write. I'm not sure when Zuko's going to show up again…but it's always fun when he does.
> 
> I'm not sure when this fic will get another update, hopefully it'll be shorter than the last time :)


	9. Heart of Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha! Look, it hasn't been a year since my previous update, how awesome is that!
> 
> I'm so glad all of you enjoyed the last chapter, I was determined to get it out before my obsession waned, and I'm glad it came out all right. Hopefully there won't be any more year gaps between chapter updates, but I make no promises.

Toph was delirious in her happiness, far too glad to be away from her home which was more often a prison than a place of comfort and her parents who she sometimes likened to prison wardens.

Momo, the flying lemur, was resting on her shoulders and Iggy, the sky bison, was getting his head pet in her lap while Toph chewed on some moon peaches.

The downside to being Serenity's traveling companion meant there was a limited amount of meat around, given that Serenity was a vegetarian, but Serenity was willing to go out and by her some meat if she felt that was necessary, but they also had a limited amount of money (even though Toph had brought a lot of it herself) and it was better if they could simply take their food from the earth.

Toph could live on fruits and vegetables, even if she did have a love for meat.

"So, where do you want to go?" Serenity asked. "I've been almost everywhere so I can tell you there's a lot to pick from."

"I don't care," Toph said around her peach, "anywhere's better than Gaoling."

Serenity gave a laugh at that. "Well, I'm going to knock the Water Tribes off the list, then, since your feet can't really see through ice."

Being a blind girl on a block of ice wouldn't end well for Toph, that much she knew.

"We could do the Earth Kingdom and the Air Temples, at least to start with," Serenity added, tapping her lip thoughtfully.

"What're the Air Temples like?" Toph asked, swallowing a large bite of her peach.

"Ancient and beautiful," Serenity told her shortly with a smirk, "I'll let you see for yourself…the closest one is the Southern Air Temple, but it might be a little chilly."

The blank look worked rather well when the one using it was blind, something Toph had learned early on in life. "You think I care about a little chill?"

Serenity sniggered. "Well," she said, "you might not, but I'm sure your feet might have something to complain about."

"Oh," Toph said a bit lamely. "Yeah, they might."

"It's a bit of a walk to where I stashed the boat, so we should be able get in some good time today," Serenity added, checking the position of the sun. "Unfortunately, we'll have to pass through a Fire Nation Colony town."

"And that's bad because you're on the run from them, right?" Toph asked, rolling the kinks out of her neck as she stood.

"Well, actually they think I'm dead now," Serenity said with a sheepish shrug.

Toph's eyebrows disappeared under her fringe where it flopped down in front of her eyes. "I didn't know faking death was you thing."

"Oh  _absolutely_ ," Serenity said with a wink that Toph couldn't see. "Actually no, I got myself captured, actually, and I was shot at when I went overboard, apparently no one can swim in the Fire Nation."

"That I could believe," Toph sniggered under her breath.

"You'd be surprised just how fast rumors of my death spread," Serenity agreed with a grimace. "I freaked a couple of people out when I showed up alive, but what can you do?"

She shrugged her shoulders as Toph laughed. Toph's laugh was very rough and Serenity liked it; it suited her far better than any other kind of laugh.

"I'd go around and act like nothing had happened," Toph said with relish, "pretend like I didn't have any idea about what they were talking about."

Serenity was actually impressed by how vindictive her friend's mind was. " _Wow,_  you have a darker mind than I originally thought."

A smirk painted across Toph's lips. "And don't you forget it."

Serenity couldn't remember the last time she'd had a human for a companion, probably never, now that she thought about it. The last time had to have been when her mother had taken her to the Eastern Air Temple to see Guru Pathik. And that seemed like an entire life-time ago.

It was actually a little funny, because the Eastern Air Temple wasn't remotely close to the Fire Nation, so traveling there had taken more than a few days, but her mother had always been insistent, despite her illness, to take Serenity there.

But the most Serenity had had for companions since then were Momo and Iggy, and they weren't much for talking.

Iggy was getting used to flying for extended periods of time, despite the fact that she was still rather small and was growing very slowly, so she was flying high up in the air, but Serenity knew that eventually she was going to exhaust herself, and then she'd be back down with them again.

Her staff clicked against the ground as they walked and Serenity couldn't help but give a mournful sigh.

"What's wrong?" Toph asked without preamble, able to pick up that there was at least something bothering her friend.

The arrowheads on Serenity's hands and the blue streaks curling around her arms were hidden by the thick sleeves of her tunic and the obvious one on her forehead could not be seen under the small scarf tied over her head.

"One day I'll be able to walk through a Fire Nation Colony or the Fire Nation itself without being afraid to show my tattoos," Serenity said, curling her fingers inwards on one hand, "but I think it's safe to say that day is very far away."

Toph knew a thing or two about hiding who you really were, but she didn't have tattoos stamped on her skin to differentiate her from everyone else.

"Maybe it's not as far away as you think," she said wisely, before leaving Serenity to her contemplation.

* * *

The Colony was in the midst of a Fire Festival when Serenity and Toph arrived. Reds and oranges were everywhere that Serenity looked, with the people wearing a combination of green and red, having some identify with the Earth Kingdom and others with the Fire Nation, so Serenity and Toph didn't have too much trouble fitting in.

"Let's get some food," Serenity suggested, her eyes landing on the small restaurant located close to the fire where so many people were dancing around, whether by themselves or with a partner.

"As long as there's meat, I'm game," Toph said, following after her to an empty table, ordering a helping of lamb-pig opposite Serenity's salad.

The music was loud, but not as loud as Serenity had been expecting. There were a good number of men wearing armor of the Fire Nation, so they must have had a ship docked in the harbor at least for the night.

"When I was little I was convinced I was going to be a dancer," Serenity informed Toph, gazing longingly at the dancers. "Lu Ten always danced with me at the parties held in the palace…and sometimes I could drag Zuko into it. I was very good, but they weren't so much."

Serenity didn't talk much about her past in the Fire Nation, and Toph knew better than to pry, but she couldn't help but be curious about her. She knew, of course, that Serenity had once been betrothed –a rather archaic tradition that made Toph gag– to the Fire Nation's Crown Prince, Lu Ten, before his death and before Ozai had come into power.

It seemed a bit weird to be betrothed to one boy but have true feelings for his cousin, but it wasn't as though Serenity had any choice in the matter.

"Probably because they weren't an Airbender," Toph said under her breath, making sure that no one around them could hear the word 'Airbender'.

Serenity grinned widely. "That might have had something to do with it," she couldn't deny. Dancing, after all, dealt with being light on one's feet, which was something one had to be if they intended to succeed as an Airbender.

It also helped if you were a gymnast as well, like Ty Lee.

Across the plaza, sulking over a cup of tea was Zuko, though she did not see him, far too focused on telling Toph of a few instances of the failures at dancing she had witnessed, and there were a startling number.

Zuko saw her clearly, though, he would have been able to tell who she was from the grey color of her eyes to the scarf she wore around her head, to the smile that graced her lips.

He looked away hastily in case she had seen him, but she hadn't.

"I'm sure Serenity wouldn't mind being asked to dance," his uncle mentioned lightly where he was sitting opposite him, actually drinking his tea.

Zuko had thought it strange that Uncle Iroh had wanted to come to his colony in particular when there were others far closer to their destination, but he couldn't be swayed. As soon as they had docked to refuel, his men were off the ship to get one day of partying in at the least.

The banished prince would have been fine staying on the ship, but Uncle Iroh had dragged him along reluctantly.

It all became clear when he caught sight of Serenity, her and all the letters his uncle had received over the year by messenger hawk put together could only mean one thing.

"You're trying to set me up with Serenity," he accused him through gritted teeth.

Uncle Iroh neither confirmed nor denied. "I recall she quite liked to dance," he continued as though he hadn't heard his nephew.

Zuko gaped at his uncle before scowling. "She won't want to dance with me," he disagreed with a huff of breath.

"Oh, I think you'll find she will," Uncle Iroh said, his eyes twinkling like golden stars instead of eyes and Zuko flushed, thoughts drifting to the kiss she had given him on his burned cheek, as though the burn wasn't there.

The small girl sitting across from her said something to her that nearly had her howling in laughter and Zuko couldn't quite recall the last time she'd laughed like that.

But a nudge to his heel, and he was standing, weaving through people until he had reached the table and he steeled his nerves before asking, "Would you like a dance?"

Serenity jolted in surprise at the question, eyes jumping from her companion to the speaker and then she grinned broadly.

"I'd love to," she said, both surprised and pleased, earning a few sniggers from the dark-haired blind girl.

"I'll see you back at the campsite, all right, Ren?" she asked with a knowing smirk; what Zuko didn't know was how Toph had heard the flutter of Serenity's heartbeat by his mere presence.

"All right," Serenity said, dropping a few coins onto the table for the meal before taking the hand Zuko had extended to her, her palm warm against his.

"I didn't know you were passing by," she said as they made their way to an empty spot to move with the music.

He swallowed as he brought one hand to cup her hip while hers rested on his shoulder. "Uncle insisted on stopping by to refuel."

"Of  _course_ he did," Serenity said wryly, breathing in sharply and exhaling loudly as they moved in a twirl, but the smile hadn't left her lips. "It's been –what?– a few weeks since I last saw you? Find anything good on your travels?"

Her eyes were shining and Zuko was sure she was talking about a specific person, but there was only one person he knew of that could turn his head.

"No one of particular interest," he said with a shrug, "but there is this girl I keep seeing around…but she has this problem with running away."

"Does she?" Both of Serenity's eyebrows rose on her forehead. "Well, maybe she's just got someplace to be?"

"Or someplace to be  _away from_?" Zuko countered.

"Depends on the day really," Serenity giggled as he performed a dip before righting her just as quickly.

Serenity didn't seem to know the steps to the dance, but she had caught on to them rather well in a short amount of time, making it seem almost effortless.

"Come with me," Zuko asked and Serenity's smile faded as her lips drew downwards.

"Zuko," she sighed, "you know I can't."

"My men—"

"I am an Airbender, eventually someone would notice," Serenity said, shaking her head, "hiding who I am would never make me happy, you  _know_  that."

Sadly, Zuko did, and he knew Serenity prized her freedom above nearly everything.

"Maybe there will be a day when I can return to the Fire Nation without fear of what will happen to me," Serenity said hopefully, "but until then, I'm happy to be a nomad; it's in my blood."

She smiled brightly at him and Zuko's shoulders sagged.

Serenity was painfully beautiful; painful because he had been trying to convince himself for weeks that it was better off if they weren't together. He was a Firebender, she was an Airbender; he was trying to return home and she had no home; he would give anything to be the son his father wanted and Serenity had always been the daughter her father had desired. And she had once been betrothed to his cousin.

They were all sorts of wrong for each other, but, as Serenity had once said, fire needed air in order to burn.

"Zuko, what's wrong?"

Too late, Zuko realized a dark flush had spread across his face and once he realized it, the color ripened.

"Zuko?" Serenity pressed, pulling him away from the dancers and away from the fire to stand half in shadow.

"I want to kiss you," he blurted out, knowing there was no going back the second the words left his lips, so he blazed on, "I know I shouldn't because you were Lu Ten's betrothed, and we were just friends, but I can't stop thinking about you, and I haven't for years."

Serenity's eyes had widened and her lips had parted in surprise when he had first spoken only to have her entire face soften when he finished, breathless and blush fading.

"Zuko…why don't you ask me again?" she prompted, biting her lip slightly to stop the smile when he looked to her in confusion before the realization dawned.

It was adorable, really.

"Um…can I kiss you?" he stumbled over his words, but Serenity didn't seem to notice.

"Yes," she breathed and he did a double-take before realizing he was actually supposed to do something.

His hands were warm as they cupped her cheeks, much warmer than her own temperature and any other thoughts Serenity had left her completely when his lips met hers.

She had never been kissed before and it made butterflies explode in her stomach as his fingers caught in her hair and hers looped around his neck, sighing against his mouth as she did so.

Neither of them saw the sad smile that Iroh gave them before he made his way back to the ship, humming as he did so with a small skip in his walk.

* * *

Serenity was deliriously happy when she returned to the campsite she and Toph were staying at with their animal companions and Toph had a knowing smirk on her face.

"Was he any good?"

Serenity shoved her onto her side; nothing could bring her down from her high that had been brought on by a single kiss from Zuko.

She was such a sap, but at this point, she didn't really care.

The spirits had already cursed her with a complicated love life, there really wasn't much else that could be done about it.

* * *

"Serenity!"

Cal-Tahl was entirely too cheerful, but Serenity had long since grown used to the spirit's antics. Something had him excited, though.

He latched onto Serenity's arm like Momo sometimes did, hanging on like Serenity was his life-line, which Serenity most certainly was not.

"Hello, Cal-Tahl," Serenity said with a laugh, "how are you?"

"I'm  _wonderful,_ " the spirit informed her, small eyes shining, "but you won't believe the rumor that's been going around Spirit World?"

"What rumor?" Serenity asked as they walked through the Kai-Mon Lands, nodding politely to the kindly spirits that they saw.

"They found someone's spirit at the edge of the sea!" Cal-Tahl was bubbling with excitement. "Apparently he's been there for more than a hundred years and no one noticed! Can you believe that?"

"No," Serenity admitted, stunned. "How could so many spirits miss him?"

"Well, he was stuck in this crevice that no one goes near…" Cal-Tahl's leaf-like ears fluttered in the wind. "And he has tattoos just like you! How  _cool_  is that?"

"Tattoos? Just like…me?" Serenity said weakly, her mouth going dry as she stared down at the spirit that was resting on her arm and he bobbed his head.

The only people in the world who had tattoos like her were Airbenders, and there were no Airbenders, at least none that were still alive…and she hadn't seen her great-grandfather Gyatso since she had mastered Airbending. It was possible that it could have been him that was the spirit that had been seen, but it didn't stop the hope welling up inside her.

It might be the Avatar!

Serenity swallowed thickly, trying to keep from having too much hope so that she wouldn't be too disappointed if it wasn't what she thought it was, but it didn't really work for her.

"Where is he?" she demanded feverishly and Cal-Tahl blinked owlishly before answering.

"To the north, on the other side of the mountains."

And then Serenity had taken off running.

She didn't know how long she ran, only that it seemed to drag on for ages, maybe that was her mind –which was to say, the Spirit World– playing tricks on her, or maybe it was because Serenity wasn't much of a runner (she'd take dancing over running any day).

Feet hammered against the ground as she raced down the mountain only to skid to a stop when she found the crevice that Cal-Tahl had described (the spirit had let go of her soon after she'd started running and was probably still back in the Kai-Mon Lands), and the boy.

He was young, much younger than her by at least four or five years. He wore a strange garb of yellow and orange, but Serenity suspected that it might have been something that monks wore back in those times, and he was glowing with eyes wide open and a pure white like his tattoos.

Around him was a similarly glowing blue figure that could have only been a fully mature sky bison.

Serenity stared in awe for a few moments before hopping down to get a closer look.

She wasn't sure whether or not he was actually awake, but he did tense as she approached.

"No, it's all right," Serenity said with palms open, showing that she was not a danger to him. "I'm an Airbender too, my name's Serenity." The boy relaxed but he made no other movements, so Serenity assumed he was in a trance of some sort. "It's all right, you're safe," Serenity promised, "it's all right to wake up now."

Serenity lifted a hand to brush across his cheek and the boy breathed in sharply before he and his animal companion faded from the Spirit World entirely.

* * *

Aang felt groggy like he'd been sleeping too long as he finally peeled back his eyelids to open his eyes.

For a moment he saw an image of a smiling girl with grey eyes like his and brown hair and blue arrow tattoos, and he thought he'd made it back to the Air Temple, but then the image disappeared to be replaced by another.

This girl had skin a darker color and eyes bluer than the sea, and she was smiling brighter than the sun.

* * *

Serenity opened her eyes, blinking hazily in the sunlight before smiling at Toph.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" she asked, noticing her friend's tight grip on the sides of the boat, and the distinctly green tinge to her face.

"You're _joking_ , right?" Toph griped and Iggy nuzzled her face against her lap as Serenity took up the oars once more.

The water had buffeted them in the night, but they weren't that far off course, so it only took a little bit of effort in order to get them in the right direction once more. She supposed it might have been a little faster if Serenity had been using her prowess over air to propel them forward, but as it was, she didn't think Toph would take too kindly to it.

"You've got to give a little to get a little, Toph!"

"Oh, shut  _up!"_  The blind Earthbender groaned before pressing a hand quickly to her mouth, but then she just gave up and vomited into the ocean, which wasn't the first time it had occurred since they had left port (figuratively speaking).

"Lucky for you, we're almost there," Serenity laughed as the Southern Air Temple came into view slowly but surely.

Toph offered up her thanks to the heavens as Momo bobbed up and down in excitement and Iggy released a low noise, happy to be returning home.

And so was Serenity.

* * *

Katara, as Aang had learned her name was, and her brother Sokka introduced him to the whole Southern Water Tribe village, which was startlingly small and seemed to consist entirely of women and children who were all looking at him like they had never seen anything like him.

Aang bowed respectfully, but that only made them pull back with unease.

The Airbender looked to Katara. "Uh…why are they all looking at me like that?" He looked down at himself quickly. "Did Appa sneeze on me?"

An older woman with wrinkles creasing her face and thick furs stepped forward. "No one had seen an Airbender in almost a hundred years, but that was before Serenity. Until then, we thought they were extinct."

"Extinct?" Aang squeaked before going over what she'd just said. "Wait, Serenity?"

"Serenity was an Airbender who visited us from time to time," Sokka told him with a deep frown on his face. "She traveled around a lot, learning about different cultures."

Aang screwed up his face, remembering the image of the girl he'd seen in his dream (it had been a dream, hadn't it?). "Grey eyes, brown hair, tattoos like mine?" He jabbed a finger towards his forehead and Sokka nodded. "Oh, I saw her just before I woke up!"

Katara stared at him mournfully. "That's not possible," she disagreed, "Serenity was killed by the Fire Nation more than a month ago. She's dead."

And Aang's heart fell right into his stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Aang is finally awake! I liked the idea that his spirit was in the Spirit World while he was 'asleep' so that's the way it went. They'll find out about Serenity sooner or later.
> 
> And Serenity and Zuko have finally had their kiss! I really wanted to have Zuko both be embarrassed and respectful about it, which is why I had him ask her before he kissed her. Because Zuko, at this moment, is a very angry and violent individual, but he actually cares if that's the only side that Serenity sees. (Which is possibly why I've given my soul up for this ship)
> 
> We are officially into Book One! There's going to be a few moments where the Gaang and Serenity and Toph almost meet, but it'll still be awhile before that actually happens.
> 
> I might do it where I show what Serenity and Toph are up to and then what the Gaang is doing at the same time, but that's still up in the air, so we'll see about it when we get there.


	10. Within the Southern Air Temple

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been binging on Legend of Korra and I have so many ideas! Ugh! But I also want to write Book Two for this fic, and that's still a bit away, unfortunately.
> 
> I hope you all liked the scene between Serenity and Zuko, I wasn't actually sure if I was going to do it but then I was all like I'm already in Senko (SerenityxZuko) shipping hell.

Aang watched the otter penguin waddle away from him with a pout forming on his face as Katara giggled beside him.

"Hey, Katara," he piped up, "can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"What was Serenity like?" he asked, sitting up in the snow and tilting his head curiously and Katara's face fell slightly.

"Serenity was…amazing," Katara said, sitting down in the snow with Aang. "She left home when she was twelve to dedicate herself to Airbending, and she was really good at it, insanely good, but we've never met any other Airbenders before, so…" Katara scratched her cheek awkwardly. "She was always really fascinated with the cultures and traditions and history of the world. She's the one who taught me a few basic moves about Waterbending and about the Spirit World."

"How could she teach you about Waterbending if she'd an Airbender?" Aang said in confusion.

"She spent a lot of time in the Northern Water Tribe and she watched the Waterbenders there train so she could teach me a few movements, but I had to see if I could bend from them," Katara explained. "I learned a lot from her, not just about bending."

Aang dug his fingers into the snow. "There was a nun called Serenity at the Southern Air Temple, she was the one who taught us the basics to Airbending when we first started." He giggled suddenly. "She had a wicked sense of humor."

There weren't many nuns at the Southern Air Temple, since the temple was well known for being exclusively male, but there were a few, most of them dealing with the scholarly aspect of being an Air Nomad with only a few teaching Airbending themselves.

His smile faded as he looked to his new friend. "Do you really think she's dead?"

Katara gave a helpless shrug. "She was captured by the Fire Nation and then killed when she fled. I think the Fire Nation really wanted to kill off the last of the Airbenders and were sure to tell the world when she was killed."

Serenity had inspired hope, that a member of a thought long dead civilization could return, then there was still a chance for all the others to remain the same as they were, unconquered and, in some ways, untainted by the Fire Nation.

Aang didn't speak for a moment, merely watching his new friend out of the corner of his eye. He didn't want to say that he didn't believe the Airbender was dead, lest he anger Katara. But he couldn't get that image out of his head, of the girl with smiling lips and eyes as grey as storm clouds.

"If you need a Waterbending teacher then Appa and I can personally fly you to North Pole and find you a Waterbending teacher!"

Aang's enthusiasm was infectious and Katara found herself smiling.

* * *

"Are we any closer?" Toph griped. "My feet need solid earth."

Serenity laughed. "The only way to the temple is by flying, Toph, its high up in the mountains, unless you'd rather create a path up the mountainside—"

"Yes," Toph insisted.

"—taking my glider is the fastest way up," Serenity continued and the green tinge to Toph's face deepened.

"That sounds like the absolute  _worst_  idea I've ever heard," the Earthbender groaned.

"Well, that's just because you prefer to keep your feet on the ground," Serenity replied, rolling her eyes for good measure as they came to a stop on at the foot of a mountain range, with the mountains climbing so high up that they disappeared into the clouds above.

It was an image that had made Serenity when she was a young child gasp with delight, and even now she couldn't help but be in awe of the mountains, even though the temple couldn't yet be seen.

"Earth!  _At last!"_  Toph threw herself from the boat to create a small crater in the ground and she made her own dirt-angel by moving her arms and legs in the earth. "I've missed you!"

"It's barely been more than a day," Serenity mentioned wryly as she pulled the boat more firmly onto land and Momo scampered off to come up her shoulders while Iggy groaned, flying off to land beside Toph.

"You're not a blind Earthbender," Toph sniffed, "you wouldn't understand."

Serenity rolled her eyes to the sky before turning to the flying bison. "Iggy, why don't you go ahead and fly up with Momo? We'll meet you there."

Iggy groaned as she stood before lifting into the air with Momo at her side, moving up into the clouds as Serenity situated her bag on her back where she knew the glider wouldn't bother it.

She twirled her so that the glider fins appeared before inclining her head back towards Toph. "Come on, we haven't got all day."

Toph gave an uneasy grimace. "You know what? Maybe I'll just Earthbend my way up."

"That'll take you an age," Serenity bemoaned before kicking out her leg, sending a gust towards Toph who gave a yelp as it lifted her into the air, depositing her on the top of glider and then leaping upwards, letting the wind propel her upwards.

Toph's yells were lost to the wind as they circled the mountain, following the current up and up until the temple came into view.

Serenity had forgotten how truly beautiful the temple where her great-grandfather had once lived was, with its decorated blue spires as opposed to the typical plain green that the other three temples possessed.

" _I'm gunna puke!"_  Toph called close to her ear and Serenity grinned, leading them down a slow descent.

"Hang on, we're almost there," Serenity replied before touching down lightly on the ground, letting Toph down and the Earthbender stood on the stone ground with relief, and then awe.

"Whoa!" she said, blinking her unseeing eyes as she spread her feet on the ground, feeling the shape of the temple, of the rooms and spires deep in the mountainside. "This is  _so cool!"_

"Told you," Serenity said, resting her hands on her hips with a hint of pride on her face that Toph couldn't see, but she could certainly hear in her friend's voice. "Come on, I want you to meet someone."

She took Toph's hand and dragged her forward and Toph couldn't help but say, "But everyone that lived here is dead!"

Serenity ignored her, pulling her before a statue carved from wood. "Here! This is my great-grandfather, Gyatso."

Toph stamped her foot, raising herself up on a short pedestal, raising her hands to feel the statue, tracing the contours of the face like she had when she first met Serenity.

"You don't look like him," she remarked and Serenity laughed, pressing a few fingers lightly to her chest.

"Well, of course not!" she said. "But we do share the same grey eyes, that's been passed down from him to me, oh, and my Airbending."

" _Obviously,"_  Toph snorted, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

Serenity frowned suddenly, breathing in the air sharply, her fingers fluttering in the air as she picked up a disturbance, but not one of the physical sense.

"What's wrong?" Toph asked, noticing the change with relative ease.

"I'm sensing something," Serenity murmured, closing her eyes briefly before straightening, "don't worry, it's a Spirit World thing, I should probably meditate for a bit…do you want to look around on your own?"

Toph waved her off with one hand, dropping the column of stone back to the ground and taking a left across the courtyard to investigate, while Serenity smiled, taking her staff and heading into a nearby room , dropping the bag in a corner and lodging her staff against the wall before sitting down on the bed.

A cloud of dust rose when she did so, and Serenity coughed violently for a few moments before it cleared, allowing her to fold her legs, bring her hands together, and close her eyes.

She breathed in and out deeply, calming her mind and sending her spirit from herself.

Serenity opened her eyes in the Spirit World and found herself in a very unfamiliar place.

Now, Serenity was sure she could say that she was easily the human that spent the most time in the Spirit World and knew the most about it and its occupants, such as who to approach and who to avoid, but Serenity had never been where she was now.

It was a barren land for the most part, with the exception of the large tree mounted on rocks that Serenity found herself standing before. It had a large gaping hole that glowed with a red energy.

The energy sent a shudder down Serenity's spine.

"I see you've found the Tree of Time."

Serenity jumped at the familiar voice, before turning with a grin to see her great-grandfather standing beside her with a serene expression on his face.

"Great-grandfather!" she said before confusion marred her expression. "The Tree of Time? I've never heard of it."

"Not many have," Gyatso had to agree, "its history goes back to the dawning of time itself. A very long time ago monks would meditate under the tree to embrace the great cosmic energy…you can feel it can't you?"

Serenity could, but the feeling of darkness overshadowed it, and Serenity's eyes strayed to the gaping hole in the tree, seeing something within moving about, but she couldn't quite make it out.

"What's in there?" she asked, nodding towards the Tree of Time.

"That is the spirit known as Vaatu," Gyatso said, tucking his hands behind his back, "the spirit of darkness and chaos. He feeds on all that goes wrong in the world."

"Does that mean that he becomes stronger with all that the Fire Nation has done?" Serenity asked, leaning forward and frowning, feeling the dark energy.

"In some ways more than others," Gyatso conceded. "But not enough for him to escape his prison."

So the Tree of Time was his prison? That was a bit curious.

Serenity felt herself moving forward to extend a hand, pressing it lightly against the trunk. In the back of her mind she could hear a dark chuckle that was not her own. She could feel the darkness as well as sense it, and for a moment, it almost seemed to threaten to consume her, but the feeling faded and Serenity took a few steps back.

"If there is a spirit of darkness and chaos," she said carefully, her face screwed up tightly, "then surely there is one of light and peace?"

Her thoughts drifted to Tui and La, with their perpetual balance. Surely that was a pattern repeated in the Spirit World?

"Indeed there is," Gyatso hummed in agreement. "Her name is Raava."

"Raava," Serenity repeated.

"Come, let us move to a more comfortable setting."

And in the time it took Serenity to blink, they had reappeared in an area of the Spirit World that Serenity was familiar with. It was called Lanying's Garden, and it was easily one of the most beautiful areas in the Spirit World. There were many types of flowers with varying colors spread throughout the garden, but Serenity, as always, preferred the fire lilies with their vibrant red petals.

"Let me tell you about Raava," Gyatso said, sitting cross-legged in the grass and Serenity followed his movements, resting opposite him. "Raava no longer resides in this plane because she merged with a mortal long ago."

"I wasn't aware that was possible," Serenity responded with wide eyes.

"Sometimes, back before the physical world and the Spirit World were divided, spirits would sometimes possess humans, changing the humans physically after the possession, but the relationship Raava has with her host is quite symbiotic."

Symbiotic…and Raava was the spirit of peace…

Realization dawned in her eyes and she snapped her head up to look at her Great-grandfather. "The Avatar hosts Raava?"

"Yes," Gyatso said, "he does."

Serenity tilted her head slightly, narrowing her eyes as she considered the man before her. "Did you know him? The Avatar?"

"Oh, I knew him quite well," Gyatso chuckled. "You could say I was his mentor."

That would have meant that he was closer to the Avatar than his own son, Peizhi, which annoyed Serenity a little bit, but the fact didn't matter too terribly. After all, Gyatso and Peizhi were long dead.

Now the only Airbenders that remained were Serenity and the Avatar.

The image of the glowing boy she found in the crevice of the mountainside was one that couldn't seem to leave her. It was just very eerie and strange that her mind couldn't seem to leave it.

"What's his name?" she asked finally.

"Aang," Gyatso said. "His name is Aang."

Clearly a very Air Nomad-like name, with it meaning peaceful soaring. Serenity had always felt rather odd in how her name itself was its meaning, but nothing could done about it; her mother had aptly named her, after all.

"One day the Air Nomads will be revived," Gyatso said, with a tinge of sadness to his voice and Serenity ducked her head slightly, "and one day you will be able to wear those tattoos with pride."

Serenity flushed with indignation. "I  _am_ proud of my tattoos," she insisted, only faltering slightly, "it's just that they get me into trouble a lot, that, and a good portion of the world is under the impression that I'm dead."

He arched a thick white eyebrow. "And you don't mind being considered dead?"

"Well, of course I mind," Serenity burst out, "but if the Fire Nation thinks I'm dead then they aren't going to after me."

It seemed almost selfish, she knew, there were other people in the world who probably thought she was still dead and it would probably hurt them to find out that she hadn't told them that she was still alive.

Serenity pressed a hand against her eyes, rubbing at the skin over her eyelids.

"I'll let you come to the decision on your own," Gyatso said simply before vanishing.

"What decision?" Serenity cried in aggravation.

* * *

Katara and Sokka were situated on Appa's back with Aang sitting perched on the bridge of the saddle, looking down at his hands in something akin to disbelief.

"How did you _do_  that?" Katara asked, blue eyes wide and intrigued as they flew north, as far away from the temperamental prince as they could manage, but it wasn't as though he was in a hurry to catch up with them, after all, his ship was still trapped under snow from Aang's repelling attack against their fireball. "With the water! It was the most _amazing_  thing I've  _ever_  seen!"

Aang looked out towards the clouds with an uneasy "I don't know," before looking to Katara and Sokka. "I just sort of did it."

Aang had only ever bended one element before, and that was air, to suddenly find himself Waterbending was shocking to say the least. And he still felt odd about being the Avatar, but it wasn't the same fear he had possessed one hundred years ago.

"Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?" Katara asked him gently, sensing her new friend's reluctance.

Aang let out a heavy breath, looking away once more. "Because…I never wanted to be."

Dark clouds flowed above them, casting shadows downwards as they flew on before the sunlight filtered through, and no one spoke for a scant few moments.

"But Aang," Katara said, "the world's been waiting for the Avatar to return and finally put an end to this war."

But Aang didn't know how to do that. He was just a twelve year old kid! (Well, one hundred and twelve, but that was beside the point) He had barely, just barely, gained mastery over Airbending before he'd frozen himself in the block of ice. "And how am I going to do that?" he asked, trying not to sound too despondent, but he wasn't sure that it worked.

"Well, according to the legend, you need to first master water, then earth, then fire, right?" she asked him for confirmation.

"That's what the monks told me," Aang affirmed.

Katara brightened visibly. "Well, if we go to the North Pole, you can master Waterbending."

Aang looked up, and then he was smiling with her, gaining a brightness to his eyes that reminded Katara a bit of Serenity, but she opted not to mention it. "We can learn it together!"

Learning to bend was hard enough when you were on your own; it was much easier when you had a companion to work with outside of your master. That was the way it had been done in the Southern Air Temple. The monks learned Airbending in groups with a single teacher to inspire each other and further each other.

"And Sokka," Katara said, turning towards the non-bender of the group who had been for the most part quiet up until now, "I'm sure you'll get to knock some Firebender heads on the way."

"I'd like that," Sokka said dreamily, his eyes a little dazed at the thought. "I'd  _really_  like that."

"Then we're in this together!"

It had been some time since Aang had felt this kind of kinship, and it was something that he had missed. He remembered how it had been when the other Airbenders at the temple had learned he was the Avatar, but this time was different.

And Aang smiled widely.

* * *

The Southern Air Temple was very big, as Toph had learned when she stepped foot on the stone courtyard, but there was so much more to it than she'd originally thought.

Of course, there was a room that she couldn't get into, seeming to be blocked by an Airbending mechanism that Toph knew better than to play with. Maybe she'd ask Serenity to open it up when she was done dancing with her spirit friends.

The snow crinkled under Toph's feet as she walked away from the structure before she made it down the steps, tilting her head and feeling something odd on the ground a few paces away from her.

Toph gave a frown, not quite knowing what to make of it before she took a right, passing through some thick curtains into a shielded area.

 _Oh_. That's what it was.

Toph could feel her stomach roiling at the thought of the skeletons she had come across. It wasn't easy to forget that the Air Nomads had been massacred, but it wasn't a thought that plagued Toph's mind constantly.

She could understand Serenity's reluctance to allow others to see her as an Airbender, given how the Fire Nation had killed the nation she hailed from.

Toph reached out to feel the round wooden pendant with the prayer beads around the neck of one skeleton. It was the same one that Toph had felt on Gyatso's statue.

Toph didn't have the heart to tell her friend that her great-grandfather was an unburied skeleton in what appeared to be a mass grave.

* * *

It had been a few short months since Serenity could wear her Air Nomad colors with pride, but now came the time to wear them once more.

Maybe it had mostly been Serenity's own fears and inhibitions that kept her showing her true colors, but after what had happened in the Fog of Lost Souls and Captain Zhao's ship, she had felt uneasy about wearing oranges and yellows so proudly.

It had been selfish of her, to keep herself hidden, but Serenity also had a need to preserve the last of her culture.

But she couldn't well do that without fully embracing her Air Nomad side, could she?

Serenity pulled out the garb she hadn't worn in what felt like an age, smiling fondly as she pulled it on.

She tightened the fastenings of her yellow tunic that bared more of her arms than anything she had worn since the accident, leaving the blue lines of her tattoos clear as day, but Serenity didn't mind. The loose trousers were a rusty red color, nowhere close to the bright crimson of the Fire Nation with an orange obi sash around her waist, hiding small throwing daggers that had been a gift from Master Piandao along with the sais that she had strapped to either leg. An unfortunate necessity in the world they lived in, Master Piandao liked to say.

Serenity snapped her fingers, murmuring, "Almost forgot." And out of her pack she pulled two armbands of varying shades of blue that had been a gift from Chief Arnook.

She thought she looked rather like quite an unconventional Airbender, from any point of view, but that was all right with her.

Now for the hair.

Of course, Serenity had tried being bald once, even if it had to be done in order for her tattoos to be applied, but bald wasn't really her cup of tea, as Iroh liked to say.

But the long hair was getting a bit tiring and she'd like it if the arrow on her forehead was a bit more easily seen than currently. She pulled it from its bindings, before raking a brush through, pulling out all the tangles and knots that had developed since she had last unbound it.

Her fringe had grown out by now, so Serenity braided a small plait at the side of her head, one that would make the arrow as clear as day, before gathering the rest of her hair and taking her sai and placing through it.

The length of her hair ended up being just above her shoulders, and she was fine with that.

"Yo, Ren, you done playing with spirits?" Toph called from the hallway, despite knowing full well that her friend had been walking around in the room for a good few minutes.

Serenity gave a loud and echoing sigh. "Yes, Toph," she intoned, "I'm done playing with spirits for the day. So? Did you have fun exploring?"

Toph nodded absently. "I've never 'seen' anyplace like this before."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Serenity laughed.

"I was wondering," Toph said a bit evasively, but Serenity didn't seem to notice as she cleaned up the small mess she'd made with her hair, "have you been everywhere on the mountain? I mean, apart from the temple?"

Serenity frowned thoughtfully. "I don't think so, I spend most of my time in the temple, but I don't spend a lot of time here to start with…bad memories and all…the other temples are a bit more cleansed of the bad that happened."

Was it her imagination or had Toph seemed a bit relieved by that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Serenity's back to being an obvious Airbender again, yay!
> 
> I have a personal headcanon that Zuko and Serenity's children call Aang, Uncle Aang, just as Katara and Aang's kids call Serenity Aunt Ren. Since Aang and Serenity are the last Airbenders in the world, their relationship will be relatively familial, which will come into play a bit later, don't you worry.


	11. Thoughts At Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, so it's been a really long time since I've updated…sorry, life got away from me! I can assure you that this story will not be discontinued, even though updates are few and in between.
> 
> I'm glad you all appreciate how I've incorporated the plotlines together, it's glorious, I tell you!
> 
> Hopefully we'll be able to get to the Winter Solstice before within the next two years (because my updating is rather doubtful) because that's when we'll see Serenity and Aang have their first conversation, despite not meeting in person until Book Two ;)
> 
> To the person that asked: Iggy is going to grow steadily throughout the fic, but she won't be close to adulthood.

It had been days since the repairs to Zuko's ship had been completed, but he was still stewing in his anger as he sat in his chamber on board, which was half to do with the Avatar and half to do with the newly promoted Commander Zhao.

He remembered clearly the day that he heard the last Airbender had been killed by Zhao, and he would always harbor a deep resentment towards him for nearly killing his friend (friend might not be the best word to use to describe his relationship with Serenity, but he wasn't really sure what they could call themselves).

And to add insult to injury, he tried to stop Zuko from capturing the Avatar, the only way to regain his honor.

"Do not worry about Commander Zhao," his uncle mentioned, "you have made more headway in your search for the Avatar than anyone previously."

And that was true. Fire Lord Sozin had searched for the Avatar until his dying breath and he had never caught a single glance, but the Avatar didn't seem all that impressive to Zuko, with only a mastery of air under his belt and at only twelve years of age.

Really…the Avatar was a _child!_ How was it so _difficult_ for him to be caught?

But Zuko remembered the first time he'd run into Serenity at the Western Air Temple, right after he had been banished, and he knew all too well how light on their feet Airbenders were.

The trouble with the Avatar was not his age or skill over air, it was that his eyes –wide and naïve as they were– were _grey_. Almost the exact shade of Serenity's own, and if Zuko had to wager, then he'd say that Serenity's were just slightly lighter in color.

It was distracting, especially considering the last time he'd seen them…when he and Serenity had kissed.

The thought still made him flush with heat.

"Nephew?" his uncle asked in concern, viewing the sudden flush on his face to be worrying.

"Thank you, Uncle," Zuko said, missing the small smile the robust former-general bore as he garnered where his flush had come from.

Though, it wasn't all that hard to guess; there was only one person who could elicit such a reaction in the banished prince and have a similar reaction elicited by him in return.

"General Iroh," one of the soldiers strode forward, giving Iroh and Zuko both a short bow before extending a tightly bound scroll, "this just arrived for you from Master Ren. It was delayed a few days by the weather."

Master Ren was an old army companion to his uncle, or, at least, that was what Zuko had been told; he had never heard anyone mention the name of a man named Ren, and it seemed too coincidental that Ren was Serenity's old nickname, but he never spoke those thoughts.

" _Ah,"_ Iroh said cheerfully, taking the scroll from the soldier before sparing his nephew a smile, "rest well, Prince Zuko, we'll start fresh in the morning."

Zuko gave a nod of agreement before Iroh made his way to his quarters to heat a pot of tea and read the contents of the scroll.

 _Iroh_ , the letter began.

_The Southern Air Temple was just as I remembered it, but it was new ground for my newest traveling companion, Toph, an Earthbender with a stubborn streak a mile wide. She wants to see the world, and you know me, I'm the best girl for the job!_

Iroh chuckled under his breath as he read the words. Serenity certainly had been traveling long enough to be considered an expert of the world.

_The Northern and Southern Water Tribes aren't of any interest to her, and I'm technically still considered a traitor to the Fire Nation, living or dead, so we're going to stick to the Earth Kingdom and the Air Temples._

_In other news, I have decided to stop hiding._

Iroh's eyebrows rose high on his forehead as he read those words. Since Serenity's untimely run-in and subsequent 'murder' by Zhao's hand, his former-future-daughter-in-law had kept her tattoos hidden, from what he had managed to garner from Zuko's short meetings with her. And she had every reason to hide her tattoos; there were only two Airbenders in existence, no one could fault her need for self-preservation.

_My tattoos were meant to be worn proudly, and I will wear them proudly. I didn't go through the trouble of getting them in order to hide them from the world. I'm ready for the world to know that there is one last Airbender who has survived the wrath of the Fire Nation._

_The world needs a little more hope, don't you think?_

A slight smile brushed across Iroh's lips as his eyes roved over the words dictated in the letter over and over again.

Serenity would be almost seventeen now…it seemed like so long ago since she had officially left the Fire Nation, five years was awfully long to the mind of a child, and that was still what she was, a child.

_The Spirit World is the same as ever, I've been doing an awful lot of exploring lately, and Cal-Tahl, my ever-helpful spirit guide is always glad to show me around unfamiliar places. One day I'll show it to you, I have a feeling that you would be one of the few I might be able to lead into the Spirit World, seeing how spiritual you are, there are so many things I could show you!_

_Unfortunately, our lemur, Momo, has decided to stay at the temple while we continue on to the Earth Kingdom. I'm not sure why, but we'll swing by in a few months to grab him when we circle back, if he wants to come with, that is._

_All my love to you and Zuko!_

_-Serenity_

Iroh couldn't help but smile fondly at how she'd included Zuko in that ending. She'd traced the characters of his name twice, almost like she was trying to emphasize his name unintentionally.

But Serenity would never have admitted to that.

* * *

"I _hate_ water," Toph groaned for the fifth time that hour and Serenity smiled.

"I know," she said, pushing the oars back into the water, taking note of the green tint on her young friend's face, her knuckles white on the edge of the boat, "but I can't do anything about that. We need to go across the water in order to get back to the Earth Kingdom."

Toph only groaned louder. "Distract me, _please."_

"With what?"

"I don't know." Toph's stomach roiled and she emptied it into the sea, making Serenity wince. "What about you and that guy you were supposed to marry…Lu Ten?"

Serenity paused in her rowing long enough for Toph to take notice. "What about Lu Ten?"

"You guys were betrothed, right? But you didn't love him, did you?"

Serenity's lips thinned. "That's complicated," she sighed. "In the Fire Nation, loveless marriages were as common as betrothals, I was luckier than most, I guess. My parents were in love before they married and Lu Ten and I were friends…I wouldn't have minded marrying him."

"Even though you were in love with his cousin?" Toph asked dubiously. Romantic love wasn't something she could really understand, never having felt it before, but for Serenity, she knew it was very real. She had heard how her heart beat had skipped when the boy in question had approached their table when they were in that Fire Nation colony, and she'd heard how his had been racing.

"It was very complicated," Serenity laughed. "Being the future Fire Lady had never been something that I'd really looked forward to. Fire Lady's don't last very long, at least, the ones in the history books didn't live very long…it was always like there was some curse on the family."

"You _believe_ in curses?" Toph snorted, making clear her dubious belief.

"Not really," Serenity shrugged with difficulty as she rowed. "But rumors do fly when Fire Ladies die young…the other noble girls liked to tell me that one…like they were saying I wasn't going to last long."

"They don't sound nice," Toph muttered, scowling at the thought of a younger Serenity, struggling to maintain her secret as an Airbender and having to worry about something like that too. "They were probably just jealous 'cause you were going to be Fire Lady and they weren't."

Serenity smiled fondly out onto the endless surf. "Lu Ten thought so too. He always went out of his way to make sure I was happy. He might have loved me, I don't know, we never talked about it…I think we both assumed we would when we were older." Serenity gave a humorless laugh.

She had never really thought about how life would be if Lu Ten and her father hadn't been killed and even she didn't know how he would have reacted to finding out she was an Airbender.

"Your love life is pretty terrible," Toph grunted as another wave of nausea overtook her briefly.

"Well, you're not _wrong,"_ Serenity hummed, smiling just slightly. The blue armbands she wore that were gifted from Chief Arnook almost hid the entirety of the burn that Zuko had left her with when they were younger.

"Is there anything in particular you want to see?" Serenity asked Toph in an effort to distance herself from the conversation about her relationship with Lu Ten. "In the Earth Kingdom, I mean."

"Not really," Toph shrugged before grabbing the side of the boat quickly when it swayed just enough for her to fear for her life. "Anywhere that's not Gaoling."

Serenity forced herself not to laugh when Toph had to take a few moments to keep her from puking her guts up once more.

"Where've you been in the Earth Kingdom?" she asked Serenity once her stomach had calmed.

"All over, but the Earth Kingdom is pretty vast, so we'll probably pass through some places that I haven't been through," Serenity conceded before grinning. "But I think there's one place you'll want to go."

Toph narrowed her eyes suspiciously, though her unseeing eyes were focused directly upwards towards the sky, so it didn't have the same kind of effect that it usually did. "Oh, yeah?"

"There's a city called Omashu, its actually the second largest city in the Earth Kingdom, but this city is actually ruled by a world-renowned Earthbender, King Bumi," Serenity explained, "and you're always complaining about there being no one to challenge you in that and he's always happy to have someone to fight against." She'd been complaining mostly because they had avoided having run-ins with anyone that could be considered an enemy before they'd made their way to the Southern Air Temple, but since they were being more open now (or, rather, Serenity wasn't as afraid to show off her tattoos), what she wanted was a good-to-honest challenge.

A wide grin lit Toph's face despite its green tint. "How far is Omashu?"

"A day's walk or so when we hit the shoreline," Serenity said after a moment of considering where they were in the sea. "Of course, we have to get to the shoreline _first_ and that could take some time."

That made Toph groan loudly.

"I _hate_ boats," she declared loudly as if her distaste for them hadn't been made abruptly clear to Serenity.

"I know," Serenity laughed as the sunlight fell over them as it came out from where it had been hiding behind the clouds. "Try and get some sleep, it might be a few hours."

"You're joking, right?" Toph gagged. "No one could sleep in _this!"_

But that only made Serenity laugh harder and Iggy who had been nestled at the back on the boat gave a loud and pitiful moan at being awakened so abruptly.

* * *

Aang had never been in this chamber in the Southern Air Temple, the one filled with statue after statue of his previous lives. How he instinctively knew them to be the other Avatars from before him was still a surprise to him, though the last statue was the one he recognized the most, a Fire Nation Avatar named Roku.

"Who is that?" Katara asked as she came to stand beside him as he looked on the most recent statue of a man with a long beard and hair drawn up into a top knot with an unfamiliar flame headpiece.

"That's Avatar Roku, the Avatar before me," Aang explained with a smile.

"You were a Firebender?" Sokka wrinkled his nose in distaste. "No wonder I didn't trust you when we first met."

Katara rolled her eyes. Like that was the reason Sokka hadn't trusted Aang. But then she inspected the statue for any sign of a name, though there was none. "There's no writing. How do you know his name?"

"I'm not sure," Aang said, his brow wrinkling in confusion and knowing he couldn't quite place how he knew the former Avatar's name. "I just know it somehow."

Sokka gave a groan of frustration. "You just couldn't _get_ any weirder!"

Something else might have been said if not for a soft sound coming from the entrance into the chamber, and all three twisted around quickly to see a shadow growing larger across the floor, a shadow large ears that weren't unlike the style of the helmets that Fire Nation soldiers possessed.

" _Scatter!"_ Sokka hissed and all three moved to duck behind statues large enough to hide them as the soft noises came closer and the shadow grew larger.

"Firebender," Sokka hissed from behind a robust Earthbender statue, clutching his battle club tightly in his hand. "Nobody make a sound."

Exasperation made Katara's voice rise. " _You're_ making a sound!" Only to wince when both boys shushed her and she couldn't help but grimace.

Sokka tensed with a murmur of "That Firebender won't know what hit 'em." And then he twisted out of hiding, only to pause at the sight framed in chamber's entrance, because that was definitely not a Firebender. Aang and Katara peeked their heads out of hiding as well when they saw that Sokka wasn't attacking the would-be-Firebender.

It was a winged lemur, staring at them all with wide and curious eyes, his long ears flopping down on his back.

"Lemur!" Aang cried in excitement.

"Dinner!" Sokka moaned with the same kind of enthusiasm, practically drooling.

"Don't listen to him," Aang said to the lemur with grey eyes positively bright. "You're going to be my new pet."

"Not if I get him first!" And Sokka lurched out towards the lemur with Aang quick on his tail, and the lemur positively scampered, leaving them to run after it, leaving Katara in the dust, just a bit befuddled, but she should have never underestimated her brother's love of meat.

The echoing calls of Aang and Sokka echoed off the walls as they chased the lemur.

"Wait, come back!"

"I wanna eat you!"

Aang leapt over a swipe from Sokka's club to race along the wall, coming out in front of him with laughter spilling from his mouth, bright and infectious, before he twisted around, spinning the air into a tight ball and sending it towards Sokka, thumping him in the stomach and knocking him to the ground with a loud " _Oof!",_ his head colliding with the ground.

But Aang continued on, following the lemur out onto a balcony and even when it flew off it, Aang didn't stop; he leapt right over it too, running downwards with another laugh, bouncing off the rocks close to the bottom without a care.

"Hey, no fair!" Sokka called above him, stopped at the guardrail on the balcony, shaking his fist at Aang, who paid him no heed, still grinning widely as he fell.

The lemur had come to a stop and Aang fell with his arms outstretched, landing on the ground lightly, but the lemur slipped through his arms, darting away to hide beyond some unfamiliar and old ratty curtains.

"Hey, come back!" Aang called, standing to follow after. He pushed aside the curtain and entered, still with a smile on his lips. "Come on out, little lemur!" Aang's voice echoed ominously in the silence. "That hungry guy won't bother you anymore."

He pushed past another set of drapes, pausing as he came through, drawing in a sharp breath at the scene that lay before him. Because resting on the snow, as they had for more than one hundred years, were skeletons upon skeletons wearing the old Firebender uniforms that had been common more than one hundred years ago.

"Firebenders?" Aang gasped, taking in the sight in surprise and just a bit of fear. "They were here?" _That was impossible, wasn't it?_

His eyes drifted from one skeleton to the next before drawing towards one skeleton in particular, close to the back and wearing ripped yellow robes that had degraded with time and were the type of color that the monks from the temple had worn.

But it wasn't the robes that had caught Aang's eye, it was the thick wooden beads around the skeleton's neck, the ones that ended in a circular pendant that bore the Airbending symbol, one that Aang had grown accustomed to seeing on only one Airbender in particular.

"Gyatso," Aang murmured, hardly daring to breath, his heart racing in his chest as he fell to his knees and clutched his head.

_No…it couldn't be!_

* * *

Serenity couldn't explain it, the thing that had awoken her late into the night when she and Toph were camped out on land under a reinforced earth tent while a storm raged outside.

Iggy gave an uncomfortable twitch; she'd never really been a fan of storms and she wasn't about to start.

Serenity reached out towards her blindly as the earth tent made it so dark that seeing Toph or Iggy was rather impossible. Toph didn't consider this a problem, being someone who had never had nor needed sight.

Her fingers caught the tip of Iggy's horn and she followed it down until she could pat the flying bison's head in a comforting manner, still trying to regulate her breathing.

It had felt like a ripple of spiritual energy, that was about as close as she was going to come to describing what she had felt, powerful enough to tear her away from where she'd been in the Spirit World.

And Serenity's thoughts shifted to the boy she had found in the cave in the Spirit World.

_The Avatar has returned._

* * *

Omashu wasn't exactly easy to get into, that much was the same as Serenity had remembered. It had great gates –though not as impressive as the ones around Ba Sing Se, but Serenity didn't like Ba Sing Se nearly as much– that surrounded it, but Serenity was sure if she hadn't wanted to deal with the hassle she would have just grabbed Toph and used her glider to fly over the walls (though, they had guards watching for that sort of them, so it might not have been the best course of action).

But Serenity knew Toph preferred her feet on the ground, so they walked the long distance that was the path that led up to the city and over a deep ravine.

It wasn't something Serenity would have liked to fall into, that much she was sure of.

When they finally approached the two guards at the end of the bridge, the one on the right slammed his foot into the ground, raising a rock large enough to squash Serenity easily high over her head and Serenity arched an eyebrow while Toph tensed beside her, ready to retaliate with her own rock.

"What's your business here?" the guard demanded, while his apparently much calmer companion took note of the blue arrow tattoos winding down her arms to rest on the back of her hands and clear on her forehead where her hair had been pulled into a small side braid in order to expose. It was clear that he recognized her tattoos even though Serenity didn't recognize him.

"My name is Serenity," she said, before gesturing to her companion, "this is Toph. We're here to see King Bumi."

The rock above her head didn't waver. "Why?"

"I'm an old friend," Serenity smiled and the lotus tile hanging around her neck felt warmer.

"Forgive me," the second guard interjected, "but you are _the_ Serenity, aren't you? The Lady Serenity? The last Airbender?"

Serenity didn't bother to point out that that might no longer be the case, because who really knew about the Avatar's return?

"Yes, I'm _that_ Serenity," she said dryly, glancing up to the rock still hovering above her head that hadn't moved and Toph snorted beside her. "I don't think it's a very common name."

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" The first guard asked her bluntly.

"I get that a lot," Serenity taking in a deep breath and leaning her head back to blow out air sharply in a powerful gust that sent the rock above her head flying out of the air to fall into the ravine, leaving the guard who'd been keeping it where it previously was to stare blankly at her. "Did you miss the part about me being an Airbender?"

Toph's sniggers gained in volume.

"Are we allowed to go in, or do you need something else?" Serenity prompted, arching an eyebrow at the pair of them.

"Um, no, that's not necessary," the first guard said and a few moments later, a crack appeared in the wall that slowly grew until there was enough space for both girls to pass through. "Enjoy your stay, ladies."

"Thank you," Serenity said, moving past them with Iggy walking between them, earning an odd stare from both guards.

"Rock solid, Ren," Toph said raising a fist. "Rock solid."

Serenity laughed and bumped her fist against hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The funny thing is that for a time Aang, Katara, and Sokka are actually going to be following Serenity and Toph's footsteps, but, obviously, the duo won't be making their way towards the north pole because Toph can't see through the ice.
> 
> But I am playing around with the idea of Ren and Toph crossing paths with Jet, because gods knows that won't end well, though I do want to see what happens when Toph and Bumi have their own battle of wills, because Toph hasn't done a lot of Earthbending recently and I'm sure she's getting antsy.
> 
> And there's always a lot going on, because you've got Aang, Sokka, and Katara off doing their own thing, Serenity and Toph doing their thing, and Zuko and Iroh doing their thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously, I'm setting up Serenity for tragedy, considering the fate of Lu Ten, and if you don't know what that is, then you clearly haven't been watching Avatar…until next time!


End file.
